oCtte 

®imfacr£iitp  of  iSortlj  Carolina 


Collection  of  Motti)  Catolintana 

CB 
CbS^c 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032195918 

This  book  must  not 
be  taken  from  the 
Library  building. 


Ibis  IITLE  HAS 


BEEN  MICROFILIVED 


Mrs.  Clifton  Clay 


The 

Life  of  Clifton  Clay 

OR 

True  Stories  for  ^Parents 
and  Children 


WRITTEN  BY 

A,  L.  COBURN 

IN  THE  YEARS  1903-4 


RAY  PRINTING  COMPANY 
CHARLOTTE,  N.  C. 


PREFACE. 


This  little  volume  has  been  written  that 
good  may  be  done,  that  souls  may  be  saved, 
and  that  God's  name  may  be  glorified. 

Cliff  was  a  bad  boy,  but  0  how  good 
God  was  to  him  ! 

These  are  true  stories,  and  many  who 
are  now  living  in  Rowan,  Montgomery,  and 
other  counties,  can  testify  to  them. 

Let  us  all  trust  in  the  Lord,  and  do  good, 
and  meet  in  Heaven. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  L.  COBURN. 


DEDICATORY. 


This  little  book  is  dedicated  to 

MY  DEAR  WIFE 

who  has  for  twenty-six  years  stood  by  me 
in  prosperity  and  adversity,  in  sickness 
and  in  health,  in  joy  and  in  sorrow;  and  to 
whom,  under  God,  I  feel  that  I  owe  all 
that  I  am  or  ever  shall  be. 

An  affectionate  husband, 

A.   L.    COBURN. 


LIFE  OF  CLIFTON  CLAY. 

CHAPTER  I. 

In  the  year    1849   there    lived    in    the 

county  of  R ,  in  the  State  of  N ,  a 

man  and  his  wife,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Clay.  Five 
children  had  been  born  to  them,  but  they 
all  died  in  infancy,  the  eldest  being  only 
two  years  old.  So  they  were  left  all  alone. 
But  on  the  25th  of  July,  1849,  another 
child  was  born  to  them,  Clifton  by  name— 
and  I  am  the  boy.  And  as  the  law  recog- 
nizes pencil  writing  I  will  sharpen  up  my 
old  stub  and  write  my  will. 

My  will  is  to  do  all  I  can  to  save  every- 
body. When  I  think  of  God's  goodness  to 
me  I  feel  it  my  bounden  duty  to  do  every- 
thing in  my  power  to  save  sinners.  And 
as  I  have  been  asked  and  insisted  upon  by 
friends  to  write  out  a  sketch  of  my  life,  I 
will  endeavor  to  do  so  by  the  help  of  God, 
for  three  reasons:  First,  to  gratify  my 
friends;    second,   hoping  that  some  good 

9 


may  result  from  it;  and  third,  that  I  may 
tell  others  of  God's  goodness  and  mercy 
to  me. 

I  was  a  bad  Cliff.  As  I  have  already 
said,  I  had  neither  brother  nor  sister,  and 
as  they  all  died  when  small,  you  may 
be  sure  my  parents  were  very  solicitous 
about  me.  So  when  there  was  the  slight- 
est physical  ailment  to  be  seen  in  me  the 
old  sweet  oil  bottle  that  hung  by  a  string 
from  a  nail  driven  in  a  log  of  the  old  house 
was  taken  down,  and  an  old  pewter  spoon 
was  taken  from  the  shelf,  and  Cliff  was 
drenched.  Ugh!  what  a  nauseous  draught 
it  was.  I  tell  you  my  parents  came  very 
near  killing  me  trying  to  keep  me  alive. 
0,  how  I  dreaded  that  bottle  and  spoon  ! 
But  after  I  got  a  little  larger  Mother  left 
off  the  spoon,  and  would  stir  the  stuff  up 
in  a  cup.  Now  you  know  boys  get  loose 
and  fly  off  the  handle,  or  say  things  they 
ought  not  to  say.  Now  that  was  just  what 
I  did.  I  was  too  mean  and  lazy  to  work. 
— One  day  mother  wanted  me  to  do  some- 
thing for  her,  and  forgetting  the  conse- 
quences I  said,  "I'm  sick."  That  was 
enough.  Mother  got  the  cup,  and  the  bot- 
tle was  lifted  from  the  nail,  and  before  I 
had  time  to  frame  another  lie,  the  stuff 
10 


was  ready.  I  told  my  mother  I  could  not 
take  it  in  the  house,  as  it  would  surely 
make  me  vomit.  So  I  went  out,  but  instead 
of  taking  it,  I  threw  it  under  the  house, 
and  came  back  with  the  crookedest  face 
you  ever  saw. 

My  father  and  mother  were  members  of 
the  church,  but  not  Christians;  and  conse- 
quently let  such  conduct  pass  unpunished. 
But  from  a  child,  notwithstanding  I  never 
heard  my  father  or  mother  pray,  or  even 
ask  a  blessing  at  the  table,  I  wanted  to  be 
a  good  boy;  and  when  it  would  get  dark  I 
would  think  about  how  bad  I  had  been, 
and  was  afraid  to  go  to  sleep.  Oh,  how  I 
wished  father  and  mother  would  pray!  I 
thought  if  they  would  even  pray  at  the 
table  it  would  help  me  to  do  better. 

My  father  was  a  good  carpenter  and  also 
a  good  farmer.  He  was  often  employed  by 
the  sheriff  of  the  county  of  R to  trans- 
act business  for  him,  and  these  things  often 
kept  him  from  home  during  the  win- 
ter season.  He  was  always  at  home  on 
Sunday.  So  one  Sunday  morning  I  got 
father  to  the  crib  to  see  the  fun,  and  Char- 
ley did  not  get  the  attention  he  thought 
due  him,  and  he  got  mad  and  was  walking 
after  me.  I  grabbed  him  on  the  shoulder 
11 


and  he  grabbed  my  thumb,  and  would  have 
bitten  it  off  if  father  had  not  been  present. 
That  broke  up  the  circus.     I  don't  remem- 
ber having  another  show  after  that. 
I  did  not  go  to  school  much.     My  father 

raised  a  boy,  Wilburn  A ,  who  was  older 

than  myself.  I  went  to  school  with  him  a 
few  days  to  Mr.  C.  He  was  a  good  man 
and  very  kind  to  me,  but  I  was  afraid  of 
him.  I  also  went  a  few  days  to  his  sister- 
I  cannot  remember  much  about  either  of 
them,  except  that  I  was  afraid  of  them 
both  without  a  cause.  I  said  Mr.  C.  was  a 
good  man.  I  say  so  because  his  after  life 
shows  it — he  is  still  living.  The  next 
teacher  I  went  to  was  a  Mr.  P.  I  was  some 
older  and  not  quite  so  shy.  This  man  would 
sing  and  pray  in  his  school.  Mr.  C.  may 
have  done  the  same— I  don't  remember.  I 
have  always  loved  singing  and  praying 
ever  since  I  can  remember  anything.  Mr. 
P.  taught  me  my  first  tune;  it  was  ''Happy 
Day."  Neither  of  these  ever  whipped  me. 
It  was  not  because  I  did  not  need  it,  nor 
that  the  teachers  failed  to  do  their  duty;  it 
was  just  because  they  failed  to  catch  up 
with  me  in  my  meanness.  I  was  always 
on  the  lookout.  My  father  never  whipped 
me.     Sometimes  I  would  cry  out  of  a  whip- 

12 


ping  and  sometimes  I  would  lie  out  of  it. 
I  always  got  out  of  it.     I  always  got  out 
one  way  or  the  other.     I  remember  one  day 
when  my  father  was  gone  to  mill,  I  took  it 
into  my  head  to  survey.     So  without   chain 
or  compass,  with  only  a  hatchet  to  mark 
with,  I  started  out.     My  idea  was  to  mark 
semething  every  six  steps.     Father  at  this 
time  was  building  a  new  house,  and  the 
scaffolding  poles  were  up  all  around  the 
house  where  he  had  been  weather-board- 
ing.    It  was  six  steps  to  the  first,  and  six 
steps  to  the  next,  and  so  on  along  the  line 
to  the  corner;  but  as  I  could  not  make  it 
from  that  line  of  poles  to  the  next  at  six 
steps,  I  tried  it  to  the  corner  of  the  house, 
and  as  that  was  the  proper  distance,   I 
whacked  away  on  the  corner  tiling.    When 
father  came  home  about  the  first  thing  he 
saw    was    the    hacked    tiling.     Cliff   was 
called,     and    just    as    soon    as    I     saw 
father's    face,    I   knew  there  was  some- 
thing   wrong.     Pointing  to  the  tiling,   he 
asked,    *Who    did  that?''    My  heart  be- 
gan   to   jump,  and  my  breast  to  heave, 
and    my    eyes  to  swim,    and    I    suppose 
my  lips  looked  to  him  as  if  they  had  been 
struck  by  an  insulted  yellow  jacket,  and  I 
said,  'It  wasm-m-me."    Then  I  told  him 


13 


all  about  it,  my  starting  out  the  six  steps, 
and  so  on.  Father  then  gave  me  a  scold- 
ing, and  I  saw  I  had  done  wrong  and  was 
sorry  for  it  and  never  did  the  like  again. 

One  summer  day  father  was  plowing  near 
the  house  and  I  was  playing  around.  He 
told  me  to  bring  him  some  water  while  he 
plowed  another  round.  I  said  all  right. 
So  I  got  the  water  and  waited  until  he  was 
near  the  end,  then  I  ran  to  him  puffing  and 
blowing  as  if  I  had  run  from  the  spring, 
which  was  some  distance  from  the  field.  I 
handed  him  the  water;  he  drank  some  of  it 
and  looked  me  in  the  face  and  said,  ''Cliff, 
did  you  go  to  the  spring  for  this  water?" 
I  said,  ''Yes,  sir.''  He  said,  "I  don't  be- 
lieve you;  this  water  is  warm."  "Well," 
I  said,  "the  reason  of  that  is  the  sun  is 
shining  right  in  the  spring."  Now  this 
was  all  a  lie;  I  had  not  been  to  the  spring 
at  all.  I  got  the  water  out  of  the  kitchen 
and  stood  in  the  chimney  corner  till  father 
came  in  sight  and  ran  and  gave  it  to  him. 
I  don't  know  what  he  thought;  he  threw 
the  water  out,  and  next  time  I  gave  him 
fresh  water.  My  father  was  very  kind  to 
me,  and  I  don't  know  what  m.ade  me  treat 
him  so.     I  don't  know  that  he  ever  refused 

14 


me  but  one  thing  that  I  plead  for,  and  I  am 
surprised  that  he  denied  me  that.  He  went 
to  town  one  Saturday  and  got  a  pair  of 
new  boots.  Very  early  Sunday  morning  I 
inquired  if  he  was  going  to  church  that 
day.  He  told  me  he  was  not.  I  then  told 
him  I  wanted  to  carry  his  watch  and  wear 
his  boots  to  church,  and  he  refused  to  let 
me  have  them.  I  thought  he  treated  me 
real  mean,  for  I  was  certain  I  could  take 
care  of  the  watch,  and  the  boots  were  only 
four  numbers  too  large.  So  because  I  could 
not  get  them  I  would  not  go  to  church  at  all. 

CHAPTER  II. 

My  father  was  a  great  hand  for  guns, 
and  very  fond  of  hunting.  I  often  went 
with  him.  I  loved  to  see  him  shoot  birds 
and  squirrels.  I  dreaded  the  crack  of  the 
gun,  but  I  knew  that  it  was  the  ball  that 
killed.  When  I  would  see  father  take  his 
old  rifle  and  put  down  a  ball  and  go  to  the 
pen  and  shoot  a  large  hog  or  cow,  and 
would  see  where  the  ball  went  in,  causing 
instant  death,  it  made  me  very  much  afraid 
of  bullets,  for  I  knew  they  carried  death 
with  them;  and,  like  every  other  bad  boy, 
I  was  awfully  afraid  of  dying. 

One  day  I  was  out  of  employment,  and 

15 


was,  as  usual,  prowling  around  in  the 
house,  aggravating  my  mother.  I  climbed 
up  on  an  old  trunk,  and  from  that  to  the 
top  of  the  bureau,  and  opened  the  clock  to 
see  what  I  could  find  in  it.  My  mother 
knew  nothing  of  what  I  was  doing,  as  her 
back  was  turned  to  me,  and  she  was  very 
deaf.  I  kept  fumbling  around,  and  at  last 
spied  a  ball  of  lead  on  the  clock  weight  and 
lifted  it  off  and  took  it  to  mother.  She 
said,  ''CHff,  where  did  you  get  that  bul- 
let?" I  told  her.  *'Now  you  go  right  back 
and  put  it  where  you  got  it  from.  The 
clock  won't  run  without  it.''  So,  for  once 
in  my  life,  I  obeyed  mother  and  turned 
back.  On  reaching  the  trunk,  in  order  to 
make  a  successful  climb,  I  put  the  ball  in 
my  mouth  and  started  up;  but  to  my  hor- 
ror the  thing  went  down  my  throat,  and  I 
knew  when  a  ball  entered  anything  it  was 
certain  death.  I  did  not  expect  to  reach 
mother,  but  I  started  that  way  with  a 
scream  every  jump— with  both  hands  on 
my  mouth,  'raking  for  the  ball.  Mother 
was  very  much  alarmed  at  the  noise  and 
the  capers,  and  asked,  '  'What  in  the  world 
is  the  matter,  Cliff?"  I  told  her  between 
screams  that  the  ball  was  in  me;  that  I  had 
swallowed  it,  and  it  would  kill  me.    I  was 

16 


scared  almost  into  fits.  To  my  great  sur- 
prise mother  laughed  at  me,  and  told  me  it 
would  not  kill  me  unless  it  had  been  shot 
in  me.  She  said  the  clock  would  not  run 
without  it,  but  it  did;  and  the  ball  didn't 
kill  me,  sure  enough. 

Well,  I  let  such  things  alone,  and  went 
to  play  with  my  pet  cat.  Sometimes  cats 
get  tired  of  boys'  fun.  One  day  another 
boy  and  myself  put  five  half-grown  cats  in 
a  half -bushel  gourd,  and  started  down  a 
long  hill.  About  every  fifty  yards  out 
would  fly  a  cat.  Now  that  was  great  fun 
for  the  boys,  but  hard  on  the  cats.  One 
day  when  I  was  playing  with  my  old  yel- 
low cat  she  seemed  to  get  tired  all  at  once, 
whirled  on  her  back,  kicked  up  with  her 
hind  feet,  and  ripped  the  back  of  my  hand 
open  with  her  sharp  claws.  This  so  en- 
raged me  that  I  set  her  claws  in  the  fire  on 
hot  bed  of  coals.  Just  as  the  cat  was  scur- 
rying out  of  the  fire-place,  kicking  off  the 
live  coals,  mother  came  in.  She  said, 
'  'Cliff,  what  are  you  up  to  now  ?' '  I  told 
her  the  old  cat  had  scratched  me,  and  I  put 
her  in  the  fire.  The  back  door  of  the  house 
was  shut,  and  there  was  no  possible  chance 
for  me  to  escape,  and  she  whipped  me— 
just  as  she  ought  to  have  done.     That  was 

17 


the  first  and  only  whipping  my  mother 
gave  me.  Once  after  that  my  cat  scratched 
me,  and  I  wanted  to  throw  her  in  the  fire, 
but  remembered  what  I  got  before,  and 
was  afraid  to  repeat  it.  So  I  went  and  got 
a  handful  of  balm  of  Gilead  buds,  caught 
the  cat  and  sat  down  on  her,  opened  her 
mouth  and  crammed  it  full  of  those  sticky 
little  buds.  Mother  came  in  on  me  again, 
but  both  doors  being  open  this  time,  I 
made  my  escape  without  being  whipped. 

You  see  I  was  continually  getting  into 
trouble,  or  else  getting  something  else  into 
it.  My  life  was  no  pleasure,  I  was  so  mean 
and  so  disobedient  to  my  mother;  and  she 
was  so  easy  and  indulgent  with  me  as  to 
let  me  go  unpunished.  Now,  she  did  this 
through  kindness  to  me,  but  it  caused  us 
both  much  sorrow  later  on.  My  father 
would  often  come  home  from  a  business 
trip  under  the  influence  of  liquor.  That 
would  fret  mother,  and  they  would  often 
say  unpleasant  things  to  each  other.  I 
always  dreaded  to  see  him  come  home.  He 
was  an  honest,  generous,  hard-working 
man.  He  often  went  to  church,  but  still 
continued  to  drink  at  times.  Sometimes 
he  would  quit  for  a  good  while,  and  I  would 
get  in  hopes  he  had  quit  for  all  time,  and 

18 


would  be  a  good,  kind  father  all  the  time. 
Then  the  monster  would  lay  hold  of  him 
again,  and  I,  poor  boy,  would  sink  back 
into  despair. 

I  had  an  uncle  who  lived  near  my 
father's  who  was  a  good  man,  and  I  would 
often  go  down  there  and  stay  for  dinner  to 
get  molasses  to  eat.  We  never  had  molas- 
ses at  home;  we  always  had  plenty  of 
honey,  and  the  pesky  things  that  made  it  I 
despised.  I  had  no  pleasure  in  the  yard 
in  the  summer;  the  hateful  bees  would  be 
on  the  clover  blooms,  and  often  I  had 
alarmed  mother  by  a  whooping  yell,  com- 
ing towards  her  on  on^  foot,  with  one  of 
the  pests  sticking  to  the  bottom  of  the 
other.  I  would  have  had  a  good  time  at 
Uncle's  if  it  had  not  been  for  two  things. 
My  Uncle  always  had  a  blessing  at  the 
table.  I  thought  that  was  so  nice;  and  the 
molasses  was  always  on  the  table,  and  it 
was  so  good;  and  his  children  thought  so 
strange  that  I  loved  molasses,  and  it  seemed 
just  as  queer  to  me  that  they  wanted  to 
go  home  with  me  to  get  honey;  but  so  it 
was.  The  two  things  that  I  didn't  like 
was  a  big  spinning  wheel  and  my  aunt's 
sister,  who  lived  with  my  uncle  and  spun 
on  the  wheel    from    morning    till    night. 

19 


Now  the  b-u-m,  w-u-m,  w-a-m,  buzzing 
noise  of  that  wheel  and  the  girl  who  turned 
it,  I  could  not  bear.  She  was  good-looking 
and  pleasant  and  all  that;  but  she  was  one 
of  those  endless  teases.  She  was  always 
wanting  to  kiss  or  bite  me,  and  if  it  was 
after  dinner  when  she  made  for  me  it  did 
not  take  me  long  to  get  home.  She  often 
visited  my  mother,  and  I  dreaded  her  com- 
ing just  about  as  much  as  I  did  the  sweet 
oil  bottle  and  spoon.  Every  time  she  came 
she  would  run  me  down  and  kiss  me,  and 
made  me  mad  as  a  hornet.  After  a  hard 
race  one  summer  day  she  got  her  kiss,  as 
usual,  then  took  her  seat  beside  the  north 
door  to  cool  off.  The  old  house  was  neither 
ceiled  nor  weatherboarded.  I  slipped  up 
and  saw  the  back  of  her  neck  through  a 
crack,  and  seeing  the  best  chance  of  my 
life  to  get  even  with  her,  I  got  my  squirt- 
gun.  It  held  about  a  half-pint  of  water. 
I  drew  it  full,  fairly  gritting  my  teeth  all 
the  while.  I  stole  softly  up  behind  her, 
stuck  the  gun  in  the  crack,  and  then  with 
vengeance,  I  shot  the  whole  load  on  the 
back  of  her  neck.  I  did  not  wait  to  see 
what  she  did,  but  heard  a  racket  as  I  was 
leaving,  and  she  has  never  kissed  me  since 
that  day. 

20 


,  I  was  now  large  and  old  enough  to  help 
father  in  the  field.  I  liked  to  lounge  about 
the  kitchen,  and  cook,  in  my  own  way,  but  I 
despised  the  field.  One  day  when  he  was 
in  the  field,  a  mule  ran  away  with  the  har- 
row and  broke  it.  I  was  so  glad.  I  thought 
now  I  will  have  a  long  rest.  But  father 
sent  me  about  a  mile  to  get  an  augur,  and 
in  a  few  minutes  after  my  return  the  har- 
row was  mended,  and  father  went  to  har- 
rowing and  Cliff  to  digging.  Father  would 
sweat  freely,  and  of  course  I  wanted  to'  be 
like  him.  I  would  dig  and  lam  with  all  my 
might,  but  never  could  get  my  shirt  wet. 
One  day  in  August  we  were  cutting  briars 
in  the  bottom.  Father  was  drinking  and 
had  the  toothache  to  boot;  so  you  may 
know  things  were  not  pleasant.  About  10 
o'clock  he  told  me  he  would  have  to  quit, 
but  for  me  to  work  on  till  about  eleven, 
and  then  come  to  the  house.  I  dreaded 
staying  down  there  that  long  by  myself  ; 
but  I  let  in  to  work  like  a  man,  and  was 
determined  for  once  in  my  life  to  go  home 
with  a  wet  shirt.  So  I  would  dig  and  cut 
briars  with  all  my  might  for  awhile,  and 
feel  my  shirt  to  see  if  it  was  getting  wet ; 
then  I  would  go  at  it  again  in  good  earnest, 
but  all  to  no  avail.     So  about  the  time  I 


21 


thought  I  ought  to  start  home  I  got  in  the 
branch  and  threw  water  on  my  back  till  it 
was  good  and  wet,  then  away  I  went  for 
home,  but  the  sun  was  so  hot  my  shirt  was 
as  dry  as  a  chip  when  I  got  to  the  house. 

I  worked  but  little  after  this  with  father. 
He  continued  to  drink  for  some  time.  His 
health  began  to  fail.  He  was  called  to  the 
war,  but  got  a  young  man  in  his  place.  He 
quit  drinking  a  very  short  time  before  his 
death.  The  preacher  came  to  see  him, 
the, only  time  I  ever  remember  of  one  be- 
ing at  our  house.  I  do  not  know  what  he 
told  the  preacher,  but  I  know  strong  drink 
brought  him  to  an  untimely  grave.  He 
died  on  the  7th  of  January,  1863.  I  loved 
my  father,  but  could  not  shed  a  tear  when 
he  died.  I  thought  I  loved  my  mother 
when  a  boy,  but  I  know  now  that  I  did  not 
love  her  as  I  ought,  or  I  would  have  obeyed 
her,  and  0  how  much  better  it  would  have 
been  for  me  in  after  life  if  I  had  obeyed 
my  mother.  Boys,  let  me  tell  you,  for  I 
know  it  is  true,  you  will  have  a  hard  time 
getting  through  the  world  if  you  are  dis- 
obedient to  your  parents.  I  entreat  you  to 
love,  honor  and  obey  them  while  they  are 
with  you,  and  you  will  always  be  glad  you 
did  so  when  they  are  hidden  away  in  the 
grave. 

22 


chapter  iv. 

Thinks  His  Mother  Treated  Him 
Wrong. 

My  father  now  being  dead  the  estate 
had  to  be  settled.  My  uncle  administered 
on  the  estate,  made  sale,  paid  all  the  debts, 
and  paid  over  several  hundred  dollars  to 
my  mother.  She  gave  me  one  half  of  what 
was  paid  over,  and  it  was  not  long  till  I 
got  the  other  half  and  spent  it,  but  it  being 
war  times  money  was  worth  but  little. 
Corn  was  $15  per  bushel.  We  had  a  right 
hard  time  of  it,  and  it  was  all  because  I 
would  not  obey  my  mother.  As  I  have 
said  before,  she  was  too  slack  with  me; 
and  now  as  father  was  dead,  I  intended 
doing  just  as  I  pleased.  Mother  bought 
Charlie  at  the  sale;  he  was  now  getting  old 
but  was  still  fine  looking  and  pranky.  I 
would  take  him  and  ride  out  and  run  races 
on  Sunday,  and  keep  mother  forever 
uneasy  about  me.  Now,  boys,  don't  treat 
your  dear  mother  like  I  did;  if  you  do  you 
will  always  regret  it,  at  least  I  have. 

After  the  death  of  my  father  I  went  to 
school  one  session  to  a  young  lady,  a  Miss 
S.  She  was  a  good  teacher  and  I  loved 
her,  and  wanted  to  please  her.     I  learned 

23 


more  at  this  school  than  I  did  in  all  the 
others  I  attended.  I  never  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  going  to  her  any  more.  I  was 
very  anxious  to  go  to  school  more,  but  the 
war  was  going  on  and  uncle  Wiley  R.  who 
had  administered  on  the  estate,  had  to  go 
to  the  war,  was  wounded  and  came  home 
and  died,  and  my  mother  caring  nothing 
for  education,  made  my  chances  very  poor. 
But  there  was  an  old  friend  of  my  father's 
living  near  us  who  said  to  me  one  day  : 
''Cliff,  if  you  will  be  a  good  boy  and  work 
and  pay  me,  I  will  see  the  teacher.  Rev. 
C,  at  the  parsonage,  where  my  boys  are 
going  to  school,  and  you  may  go  there." 
Now  that  was  glorious  news  to  me.  I  loved 
that  preacher  and  wanted  to  go  to  him;  all 
my  associates  were  going,  and  I  anticipated 
a  good  time.  I  hurried  home  to  tell  mother 
the  good  news  and  to  get  up  my  books, 
paper,  slate,  etc.,  to  have  everything  ready 
for  the  next  morning.  Mother  was  not  in 
when  I  got  home,  but  I  gathered  up  my 
books  and  was  washing  my  slate  when  she 
came  in  and  sad:  ''Chff,  what  are  you 
going  to  do  with  your  books  and  slate?" 
I  then  told  her  of  the  offer  Mr.  C.  had 
made  me  and  how  glad  I  would  be  to 
accept  it.     To  my  horror  mother  said.     '  If 

24 


Mr.  C.  is  going  to  take  you  in  hand  and 
send  you  to  school,  he  can  board  you,  for 
I  will  not/'  No  one,  except  one  treated 
as  I  was  at  that  time,  can  have  any  idea 
of  my  feelings.  Father  and  uncle  both 
dead  and  mother  working  against  my  best 
interest,  and  I  knew  it;  but  she  did  not 
think  so;  she  had  no  education  herself, 
and  often  said  it  made  people  proud  and 
high  minded  to  educate  them.  How  sad 
for  children  when  mothers  look  at  things 
of  great  importance  in  such  a  light  as 
that.  Now  I  believe  mother  was  as  honest 
in  her  opinion  at  that  time  as  Saul  of 
Tarsus  was  when  he  was  persecuting  the 
Church.  Oh,  dear  mothers,  be  careful 
with  your  children!  No  mother  can  pro- 
perly manage  children  without  daily  ask- 
ing God's  help.  Mother  was  not  a  Chris- 
tian, and  the  way  she  treated  me  made  me 
feel  very  rebelHous  towards  her,  and  I 
would  go  off  and  associate  with  bad  boys 
and  girls,  learned  to  fiddle  and  dance,  play 
cards,  and  drink  and  swear,  and  beat  my 
way  on  rail-roads  and  almost  everything 
else  that  was  bad.  When  I  would  get 
home  mother  would  quarrel  with  me  about 
those  trips  and  the  company  I  was  keeping, 
and  I  would  think  and  tell  her  of  the  offer 

25 


I  had  had,  and  how  I  wanted  to  go  to 
school  and  be  with  better  boys.  Then  I 
would  give  her  rough,  ugly  talk  and  leave 
her  again.  I  would  go  to  Sunday  school 
and  preaching,  and  when  I  would  hear  the 
superintendent  talk  and  the  preacher 
preach,  I  would  make  up  my  mind  to  be  a 
good  boy,  but  often  before  I  got  home  I 
would  lay  some  plan  for  wickedness  to  be 
carried  out  during  the  week.  But  when  I 
would  retire,  be  it  early  or  at  midnight  or 
later  (as  was  often  the  case)  I  would  feel 
awful  about  my  condition.  I  would  often 
get  down  on  my  knees  and  try  to  pray, 
but  I  was  so  wicked  and  had  no  one  to 
ead  me  in  the  right  way.  Oh,  dear  boys 
and  girls,  never  fret  and  worry  your 
mothers  whether  they  be  Christians  or  not. 
May  this  chapter  do  both  parents  and 
children  good. 

Some  of  the  boys  and  girls  that  I  associa- 
ted with  were  not  so  bad  (or,  at  least,  my 
Sunday  associations).  They  did  not  know 
how  bad  I  was,  neither  did  they  know  my 
feehngs.  I  had  some  cousins  that  were 
bad,  and  associating  with  them— as  I  fre- 
quently did — caused  me  to  be  more  wicked 
and  restless  than  I  would  have  been.  I 
scarcely  ever  went  to  church  with  them. 

26 


I  would  go  to  church  with  others,  and  often 
spend  Sunday   evening  with  my    cousins 
and  wear  off  the  good  impressions  made 
on  my  mind  by  hearing  good  sermons.     I 
had  one  cousin,  D.  C,  with  whom  I  asso- 
ciated more  than  any  one  else.     I  remem- 
ber D.  C.  and  myself  going  one  night  to  a 
Lutheran  church,    where  Brother  K.  was 
conducting  a  protracted  meeting.     He  was 
a  great  revivalist.     We  were  sitting  to- 
gether.    Rev.    K.    preached    with    great 
power  that  night,  and  the   Spirit  carried 
the  word  home  to  the  hearts  of  the  people 
(or,  at  least  it  did  to  one).     As  the  faithful 
minister  was  going  through  the  congrega- 
tion talking  to  the  people  who  were  affect- 
ed by  the  words,  he  saw  two  boys  about 
the  size  of  D.  C.  and  myself  sitting  on  the 
back  seat  behind  the  door.     He  looked  at 
us  a  moment  and  saw  that  we  were  deeply 
affected,  and  ripe  for  instruction.     He  came 
to  us  and  began  to  talk.     They  were  the 
first  words  of  that  kind  I  had  ever  heard. 
He  was  right  at  us,  and  meant  no  one  else 
but  CHff  and  D.  C.     Well,  my  heart  just 
felt  like  it  would  jump  out  of  my  breast  or 
bust.      Sometimes  the  word    ''awful"    is 
used  in  the  wrong  place,  but  I  think  I  can 
safely  say  I  felt  awful.    I  felt  that  if  1  did 

27 


not  feel  better  and  do  better  that  the  devil 
would  get  me,  and  that  it  would  not  be 
long  until  I  would  be  in  his  clutches.  The 
good  brother  told  us  if  we  would  come  and 
go  with  him  to- the  mourner's  bench,  and 
pray  earnestly  to  God,  and  repent  and  de- 
cide in  our  minds  to  be  better  boys,  our 
hearts  would  feel  better.  I  wanted  to  go, 
but  as  we  were  on  our  way  to  church  we 
had  fixed  our  coats  in  a  very  peculiar  way 
for  the  sake  of  convenience.  I  felt  I  never 
could  go  walking  down  the  aisle  before 
the  congregation  with  my  coat  inside  my 
pants.  So  I  went  to  work  to  get  it  out, 
but  could  not  without  the  preacher  finding 
it  out.  I  told  him  I  could  not  go  that 
night,  and  he  left  us,  and  soon  afterwards 
dismissed  the  congregation.  I  felt  very 
serious.  As  D.  C.  and  I  walked  home  he 
said,  ''CHff,  what  did  you  think  to-night 
when  the  preacher  was  talking  to  us?"  I 
told  him  how  I  felt,  and  that  if  my  coat 
had  not  been  in  the  shape  it  was,  I  would 
have  gone  with  him  to  the  mourner's 
bench.  He  said  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
to  go  if  I  went,  and  thought  of  his  coat, 
and  while  the  preacher  was  at  us,  he 
managed  to  get  his  out.  We  went  back 
the   next  night,  and  when  the  invitation 

28 


was  given  for  those  who  wished  to  be 
prayed  for  to  come  to  the  altar  we  went. 
I  did  not  become  satisfied  concerning  my 
soul,  but  felt  better,  and  joined  the  church 
during  the  meeting.  My  mother  was  a 
member  of  that  church.  Not  feeling 
satisfied  about  my  spiritual  condition,  and 
having  no  one  at  home  to  encourage  me  or 
speak  a  word  of  comfort  to  me,  and  none 
of  my  associates  spoke  to  me  on  the  sub- 
ject of  religion,  the  serious  impressions 
made  on  my  mind  during  the  meeting  wore 
off  to  a  considerable  extent.  Connecting 
myself  with  the  church  put  me  under  the 
lash  of  the  whip  in  the  hand  of  God.  I 
was  not  a  consistent  member,  and  God 
would  lash  my  conscience  often  when 
engaging  in  the  sinful  pleasures  of  the 
world.  D.  C.  and  I  would  attend  plays 
and  dancing  parties.  We  could  furnish 
the  music  or  take  our  places  on  the  floor. 
It  did  not  differ  to  us  which  place  we  had 
so  we  got  to  the  party.  When  I  would 
be  at  these  parties  my  conscience  would 
tell  me  I  was  doing  wrong.  When  I  would 
go  to  my  room  I  would  think  I  never 
would  go  to  another  party.  I  would  feel 
so  bad  over  my  conduct  that  I  could  hardly 
get  any  sleep.     Young  man,  don't  trifle 

29 


with  your  soul  as  I  did  with  mine.  Join 
some  branch  of  the  Christian  church,  and 
be  true  to  the  same  and  to  God,  your 
preserver  and  benefactor. 

I  associated  with  another  young  man  by 
the  name  of  David  L. .  He  was  a  trader 
and  gambler.  He  took  me  to  the  first  bar- 
room I  ever  entered.  We  went  back  from 
Main  Street,  around  a  building  and  turned 
again.  It  was  night  and  very  dark.  He 
knew  the  way,  but  I  did  not,  as  I  had 
never  been  there  before.  The  town  is  a 
prohibition  town  at  this  time,  and  that  den 
may  be  there  yet.  We  went  down  under, 
the  ground  about  seven  feet.  Daniel 
tapped  at  a  door,  as  I  thought,  and  a  man 
opened  a  space  about  li  by  6  feet,  by 
letting  down  a  plank  which  served  as  a 
counter.  We  got  what  D.  called  for,  and 
he  paid  for  it.  The  open  space  was  then 
closed,  and  we  groped  our  way  through 
the  darkness  as  best  we  could,  and  got  out. 

CHAPTER   V. 

A  Leap  from  a  Running  Train. 

Well,  David  and  I  got  out  of  the  bar- 
room, got  to  the  train  and  reached  home 
late  at  night.     I  said  he  was  a  trader  and 

30 


a  gambler,  and  we  agreed  before  we 
started  to  town  to  make  all  we  could  by 
trading  and  otherwise,  and  to  divide  the 
profits  equally.  He  was  very  successful 
and  I  received  several  dollars  that  trip. 
He  was  naturally  sharp;  his  father  was  well 
read  and  smart,  but  very  wicked,  but  I 
think  the  son  was  worse  than  the  father. 
The  old  man  Jim  L.  was  a  gunsmith  and 
jeweler,  and  Dave  would  cheat  him  every 
time  he  traded  with  him,  and  cheating 
you  know  is  stealing. 

Dave  and  I  went  to  the  town  of  S.  to 
see  a  man  hung.  He  took  with  him, 
among  other  things  to  trade  on,  a  squirrel. 
He  got  into  a  fuss  with  a  young  man.  The 
squirrel  was  chained  to  his  coat,  and  was 
in  his  pocket,  and  in  the  skirmish  the 
squirrel  got  out  and  bit  Dave's  hand,  so 
that  the  front  side  of  his  clothing  was  cov- 
ered with  blood.  He  got  the  best  of  the 
young  man  and  they  ware  parted,  but  in 
the  crowded  streets  of  the  town  the  fellow 
slipped  up  behind  him  and  struck  him  on 
the  head  with  a  rock,  cutting  it  to  the 
bone,  and  it  bled  freely,  so  the  back  of  his 
clothing  was  covered  with  blood,  and  he 
looked  so  horrid  I  thought  I  would  never 
go  with  him  any  more.     But  I  did.    We 

31 


got  some  very  bad  whiskey  one  evening 
and  went  to  a  corn-shucking  that  night, 
and  just  like  whiskey  will  do,  it  made  fools 
of  us.  We  passed  a  few  words,  and  he 
hit  me  with  an  ear  of  corn,  and  I  talked 
kindly  as  I  could  to  him  and  he  threw 
another  at  me.  I  then  told  him  if  he 
struck  me  again  I  v/ould  settle  with  him. 
In  a  short  time  he  threw  another.  I  had 
prepared  myself  with  a  large  ear,  which 
was  lying  by  my  side.  I  gathered  it,  threw 
and  struck  him  below  the  eye  and  knocked 
him  down  in  the  shucks  and  left.  He  got 
up,  enquired  for  me,  and  swore  if  he  could 
find  me  he  would  shoot  me.  Some  of  my 
friends  hunted  me  up,  and  told  me  what 
he  had  said,  and  advised  me  to  stay  out  of 
his  reach.  I  was  not  afraid  of  him,  and 
thought  I  knew  how  to  manage  him.  So 
I  watched  my  chance,  walked  up  behind 
him,  laid  my  hand  on  his  shoulder,  and 
said:  ''Dave  let  us  settle  this  and  have 
no  further  trouble. ''  I  told  him  he  had  hit 
me  three  times  and  I  had  hit  him  but  once, 
and  I  was  willing  to  drop  the  matter  if  he 
was.     So  we  departed  in  peace. 

I  had  quite  a  number  of  cousins  and  as- 
sociates in  the  community  where  I  was 
raised,  but  I  will  mention  only  four:    Mose 

32 


B.  was  a  cousin  of  mine  and  a  bad  Sab- 
bath-breaker. He  attended  Sunday  school 
and  preaching  but  very  httle.  and  then  not 
for  any  good.  The  others  were  Jake  C, 
Jak  S.,  and  Lock.  S.  The  latter  lived  just 
in  sight  of  mother's,  and  they  had  a  still 
house,  and  it  was  nearer  our  house  than 
theirs.  I  spent  much  of  my  time  with  him 
at  the  still.  I  ramibled  with  him  but  little, 
not  a  great  deal  with  Jake  C.  but  was 
often  with  him  at  homiO,  Sunday  school  and 
preaching.  I  always  loved  to  get  with  him 
and  his  sister  to  go  to  church.  One  rainy 
Sunday  morning  I  watched  for  them,  but 
in  vain.  I  started  alone  and  went  quite  a 
distance  out  of  the  way  looking  for  some 
others  that  I  hoped  to  see  that  day,  but  all 
in  vain.  In  my  trip,  coming  to  the  rail- 
road, I  found  a  train  stopping  for  wood. 
I  knew  that  it  would  go  by  the  church 
(where  the  preacher  talked  to  me)  and 
the  station  was  only  a  mile  the  other  side. 
So  without  money  or  barter,  I  mounted  it. 
I  say  barter;  I  used  to  take  very  fine 
peaches  from  mother's  orchard  to  the 
station,  leave  Charlie  and  grandmother's 
old  carriage,  get  on  the  train  and  give  the 
conductor  a  dozen  of  them  (if  I  could  not 
beat  him  out  of  the  ride)  to  take  me  to  the 


town  of  S.,  where  I  would  trade  more 
peaches  for  biscuit  and  fried  chicken,  and 
then  beat  my  way  back  to  the  station, 
Charhe  and  I  were  always  home  before 
night.  Mother  found  me  out,  and  as  she 
had  never  seen  the  inside  of  a  car,  I  told 
her  to  go  with  me  one  trip.     So  we  went 

to  the  station.  I  put  up  Charlie  and  took 
a  lot  of  peaches  and  got  on  the  train.  I 
paid  mother's  fare  and  bought  her  fried 
chicken  and  biscuit,  and  that  satisfied  her. 
When  we  got  back  to  the  station  I  found 
a  young  lady  and  her  brother  there  from 
the  city  of  G.  They  wanted  to  go  about 
fifteen  miles  into  the  country.  So  mother 
told  them  if  they  would  go  home  with  us  I 
could  take  them  the>  next  day.  So  they 
went.  I  liked  the  young  lady  very  much, 
and  she  told  me  she  would  write  when  she 
got  back  to  G.  But  alas!  as  we  were  going 
on  the  next  morning  I  was  not  as  careful 
as  I  ought  to  have  been.  So  at  a  very  bad 
place  in  the  road,  I  turned  the  old  carriage 
over,  threw  her  out,  and  liked  to  have 
killed  her.  I  have  never  seen  her  since. 
But  back  to  my  trip  on  Sunday.  When 
the  train  passed  the  church  it  did  not 
seem  to  be  running  fast,  and  as  it  was 
raining  (and  had  been  for  three  days. )     I 

34 


didn't  want  to  walk  back,  and  the  con- 
ductor had  not  found  me  out  yet,  so  I  con- 
cluded to  jump  off.  I  did,  and  the  first 
thing  that  struck  was  my  head  and 
shoulders  in  the  ditch  of  a  red  mud  cut; 
and  that  was  another  time  Cliff's  coat  was 
not  fit  to  appear  in  the  congregation. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Too  Close  to  the  Preacher. 

The  conductor  or  someone  else  found  out 
that  a  passenger  was  overboard;  and  after 
running  a  short  distance  stopped  the  train. 
I  followed  on,  but  not  to  get  on  board.  As 
soon  as  I  could  get  out  of  the  cut  I  left  the 
railroad  and  the  train  went  on.  I  went  to 
a  branch  near  by  and  washed  the  mud  off 
as  best  I  could,  and  went  to  the  church 
where  I  intended  going  that  day.  I  felt  as 
if  I  never  wanted  to  ride  on  that  thing 
again,  money  or  no  money,  barter  or  no 
barter,  and  right  then  and  there  I  made 
up  my  mind  that  I  would  never  jump  off  a 
train  again.  But  mean  boys  change  their 
minds  so  often.  One  Friday  night  Jake  S., 
his  brother  and  myself  went  to  a  singing 
at  a  church.  After  singing  I  proposed  to 
them  that  we  go  to  the  town  of  C.  that 
35 


night,  a  walk  of  about  eleven  miles.  They 
agreed  and  off  we  went.  Jake  said  he 
knew  a  man  with  whom  we  could  stop,  but 
when  we  got  there  he  would  not  take  us  in 
at  that  time  of  the  night,  so  we  lay  in  the 
woods  till  I  thought  I  should  freeze.  So  I 
told  them  we  would  go  back  and  try  him 
again.  We  went  back,  and  by  hard  beg- 
ging we  got  in.  We  missed  the  train  the 
next  morning,  and  could  not  think  of 
walking  back;  so  we  rambled  about  the 
town  all  day,  went  back  to  the  same  place 
and  stayed  Saturday  night.  We  went 
with  some  of  the  family  to  see  a  very  sick 
boy.  The  sick  boy  said  that  night  that  he 
wanted  all  his  playthings  brought  to  him. 
His  mother  gathered  them  all  up  and  gave 
them  to  him.  He  separated  them  and 
divided  them  as  best  he  could  between  his 
brothers.  The  poor  mother  was  heart- 
broken, and  said  her  boy  was  going  to  die. 
Oh!  how  I  wished  I  was  at  home  with  my 
mother,  whose  heart  was  then  throbbing 
for  her  wayward  boy.  I  had  not  even  told 
her  that  I  was  going  to  the  singing  Sunday 
morning.  There  was  a  young  man  at  the 
place  where  we  were  stopping  who  went 
and  got  a  quart  of  whiskey,  and  I  got  my 
full  share  of  it;  but  we  were  able  to  get  to 

36 


the  train  on  time.  So  without  monej^  or 
barter— for  none  of  us  had  a  cent— I  said 
hop  on  boys,  and  so  we  did.  The  train 
was  very  much  crowded,  and  we  stood  on 
the  back  end  and  watched  in  at  the  door 
for  the  conductor.  We  had  passed  the 
church  and  were  nearing  the  station  when 
I  saw  him  coming.  Now,  in  those  times 
they  changed  your  money  and  you  could 
pay  your  fare  without  a  ticket,  and  it 
took  a  long  time  when  the  train  was 
crowded.  He  was  now  near  the  door,  and 
the  train  had  slackened  some  and  I  now 
thought  I  could  make  it  safely  and  not  be 
caught.  So  I  now  leaped  off  and  the  boys 
followed  me.  We  all  escaped  unhurt.  0,  the 
goodness  of  God  to  preserve  such  wretches 
as  we  were. 

I  want  to  say  to  boys  that  trains  don't 
run  now  as  they  did  then,  and  even  if  they 
did, ,  never,  never  undertake  to  beat  your 
way  or  jump  off,  for  the  one  is  a  sinful  and 
the  other  a  very  dangerous  practice. 

The  railroad  at  this  point  ran  between  two 
churches,  the  one  a  lutheran  and  the  other 
a  reformed.  Rev.  K.  preached  at  the 
Lutheran,  and  Rev.  C.  at  the  Reformed 
church.  We  went  to  hear  the  Rev.  C. 
that  day.     It  was  a  communion  occasion, 

37 


and  the  church  was  packed.  The  preacher 
saw  us  and  beckoned  for  us  to  come  that 
way.  I  hated  to  refuse  him,  for  I  thought 
a  great  deal  of  him,  mean  as  I  was.  But 
the  thought  of  walking  down  that  long 
aisle  in  the  condition  I  was  in!  My  clothes 
were  dirty,  my  face  black,  my  pants  torn, 
and  my  coat  too  short,  but  we  went  and 
got  seats;  mine  was  on  the  steps  of  the 
pulpit.  0,  how  mean  I  felt  there  by  the 
side  of  the  preacher.  I  found  out  that  day 
that  mother  was  in  great  distress  about 
me.  And  Jake's  father  was  hunting  for 
his  boys,  and  was  very  uneasy  about  them. 
0,  boys,  don't  treat  your  parents  so.  Just 
see  what  one  bad  boy  can  do.  I  was  to 
blame  for  all  this  trouble.  I  will  tell  you 
more  about  Jake  S.  further  on.  I  spoke  of 
Mose  B.,  a  cousin  of  mine;  he  was  a  bad 
boy,  and  led  me  into  many  bad  things.  He 
was  always  ready  for  anything  that  was 
bad.  Mose  was  with  a  man  by  the  name 
of  Allison  C.  a  great  deal,  who  was  a  very 
bad  man.  He  had  a  railroad  contract  for 
making  sills  in  time  of  the  war.  He 
boarded  at  my  mother's  while  working  at 
the  sills  and  hired  me  to  chop  for  him  at 
ten  dollars  per  day.  [This  was  in  war 
time.]     After  our  day's  work  was  done  we 

38 


often  went  to  dancing  parties  and  made 
the  night  hideous  with  our  wicked  songs 
and  frolicking.  We  generally  went  armed 
with  at  least  two  pistols  apiece.  One  night 
I  remember  carrying  three.  Oh !  how  fool- 
ish, how  foolish,  but  at  that  time  I  thought 
it  was  the  thing  to  make  me  a  gentleman. 
I  will  speak  of  them  some  time  again. 
Lock  S.  and  I  got  along  all  right  except 
one  time.  Our  mothers  got  into  a  diffi- 
culty. Lock  got  m^ad  one  day  and  came 
over  to  v/hip  me,  but  I  shamed  him  out  of 
it.  In  a  few  days  he  came  by  for  me  to  go 
with  him  to  a  wedding,  and  that  was  the 
last  of  our  trouble.  Jake  C.  and  I  were 
always  on  good  terms.  I  will  refer  to 
these  again. 

I  still  worked  on  the  little  farm.  Charlie 
was  getting  so  old  that  he  could  not  stand 
the  farm  work  and  my  hard  riding,  so  I 
traded  him  off  for  a  young,  wild  gray.  I 
had  trouble  to  plow  him,  and  that  fretted 
mother.  But  there  was  one  thing  I  could 
do — and  that  was  to  ride  him.  Now,  that 
suited  me  better  than  plowing,  so  I  rode  a 
great  deal.  I  wanted  mother  to  like  my 
new  horse,  and  not  be  fretted  at  me  about 
old  Charlie,  so  at  last  I  got  her  to  ride  him. 
She  was  a  rider  of  the  old  type,   and   was 

39 


not  afraid  of  a  horse.  After  she  rode  him 
she  liked  him  better.  One  day  I  got  Lock 
S.  to  help  me  to  kill  a  big  hog.  After  we 
killed  it  we  put  it  on  a  wagon,  hitched  the 
gray  to  it,  and  left  mother  and  aunt  to 
mind  him  while  we  washed  our  hands.  He 
got  away  from  them,  ran  down  a  steep 
hill,  threw  the  hog  off,  and  tore  things  up 
in  general.  A  short  time  after  this  I  got 
my  horse  and  went  off.  I  drank  half -pint 
of  corn  whiskey,  half-pint  of  rye  whiskey, 
and  half -pint  of  rum,  traded  him  off  for  a 
little  gray  (a  racer),  came  back  by  the 
town  of  C. ,  lay  down  on  a  counter,  kicked 
off  a  lantern,  broke  it— and  had  it  to  pay 
for,  and  went  home  and  told  mother  the 
gray  was  gone. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

A  Horse  Race  on  Sunday. 

Oh!  but  I  felt  bad  over  that  trip,  and 
made  up  my  mind  that  strong  drink  should 
never  get  me  into  trouble  again  and  cause 
me  to  pay  out  money. 

I  run  one  more  horse  race  on  Sunday 
with  a  girl.  (I  say  girl  because  no  lady 
would  do  such  a  thing  as  that  on  Sunday, ) 

40 


My  horse  jumped  a  mud  hole,  caught  his 
foot  in  a  hanging  strap,  turned  a  summer- 
sault, and  threw  me  on  my  back.  When  I 
caught  my  breath  and  came  to  myself,  my 
horse  was  lying  on  his  back  beside  me.  I 
saw  at  once  that  I  was  near  eternity,  and 
felt  that  I  was  not  prepared.  I  decided  in 
my  mind  to  stop  horse  racing,  and  I  did 
stop  my  part  of  it.  I  would  go  to  preach- 
ing to  some  church  on  Sunday.  There  was 
service  at  the  Luthe^^an  church  one  Sunday 
and  at  the  Reformed  church  the  next. 
These  two  churches  were  too  near  each 
other  to  have  service  on  the  same  day  and 
at  the  same  hour.  There  was  no  Methodist 
church  in  the  community  where  I  lived  ; 
but  I  had  heard  father  and  others  speak  of 
them  and  the  Baptists  frequently.  They 
said  that  a  Methodist  preacher  was  known 
by  his  coat-tails  being  torn  loose  at  the 
back— one  with  the  Bible  and  the  other 
with  the  bottle. 

The  preachers  at  the  above  mentioned 
churches  conducted  their  meetings  in  a 
very  quiet  manner.  Sometimes  they  would 
have  revival  meetings,  and  when  penitents 
were  converted,  they  would  give  vent  to 
their  feelings  and  sometimes  shout,  and 
some  one  in  the  congregation  would  say, 

41 


''There  is  another  one  got  religion."  Well 
I  wanted  to  be  pious  and  good,  but  I  did 
not  want  to  do  as  they  did.  I  went  to  a 
Presbyterian  church  once  ;  the  church  was 
nice,  the  preaching  was  excellent,  and  the 
singing  was  inspiring.  Altogether  it  made 
me  love  those  people.  I  heard  of  a  Metho- 
dist meeting  a  few  miles  off,  and  a  crowd 
of  us  decided  to  go  to  it  one  night;  we  went, 
and  such  a  place  and  such  a  time  as  they 
had.  On  top  of  a  hill  in  an  old  pine  field 
we  found  a  little  log  house  about  18x24  ft. 
and  about  ten  feet  high;  it  was  not  ceiled 
nor  were  there  even  planks  nailed  over  the 
cracks.  Some  one  told  us  that  was  the 
church,  but  the  preaching  would  be  in  the 
grove.  Well,  that  church  did  not  look  like 
a  church  to  me;  father  kept  his  corn  and 
wheat  in  a  better  house  than  that  in  his 
barn-yard. 

When  it  began  to  get  dark  some  candles 
were  lighted,  and  a  large  pine  knot  fire 
was  made  on  a  table  covered  with  soil. 
The  pine  knot  fire  was  such  as  we  used  to 
have  at  corn-huskings.  The  meeting  began 
and  a  fine-looking  man  with  flashing  eyes 
and  a  thundering  voice  arose  to  conduct  it. 
I  asked  some  one  who  he  was,  and  was  told 
that    his    name    was    Triplett— Preacher 

42 


Triplett.  Such  a  name!— three  at  once! 
I  thought  I  never  had  heard  such  preach- 
ing. You  could  have  heard  him  a  mile. 
Before  he  was  done  preaching  that  night 
there  were  three  at  once,  sure  enough. 
An  old  lady  was  jumping  around  a  tree 
shouting;  a  man  was  walking  around  on 
his  hands  and  feet,  drunk,  hollowing  that 
Lizzie  (that  was  the  lady's  name  who  was 
shouting)  was  going  up  that  persimmon 
tree  to  heaven.  So  I  turned  away,  and  as 
for  the  Methodists,  the  half  had  never  been 
told.  I  decided  that  I  would  not  go  to  see 
such  a  show  again  soon.  My  health  being 
delicate,  I  concluded  farm  work  did  not 
agree  with  me.  So  I  went  to  see  a  man  by 
the  name  of  Brown  who  made  and  repaired 
buggies  and  wagons.  He  said  he  wanted 
someone  to  help  him  at  the  trade.  We 
made  a  contract,  and  on  the  morning  of  the 
19th  of  August,  1867,  I  bade  my  mother 
adieu,  and  left  her  alone  and  went  to  karn 
the  trade  with  Brown.  He  belonged  to  the 
Methodist  church,  and  read  a  chapter  from 
the  Bible,  and  prayed  every  morning  and 
evening.  I  liked  the  reading  and  praying 
very  much,  and  behaved  myself  at  the  fam- 
ily devotions  except  on  one  occasion.  An 
old  colored  man  came  to  work  for  Brown 

43 


and  Mrs.  Brown  gave  him  a  piece  of  musk- 
melon  for  his  breakfast.  He  laid  it  on  a 
pile  of  lumber  in  the  yard,  and  took  his 
seat  on  the  doorstep  while  Brown  had 
prayers.  I  saw  that  the  darkey's  affec- 
tions were  on  the  melon,  and  not  on  things 
above.  While  Brown  was  reading,  a  cow, 
smelling  the  melon,  ventured  to  take  it. 
The  old  man  threw  up  his  hands  and  said, 
**hus,  hus!"  The  cow  gave  it  up  a  minute 
or  two,  but  returned.  The  ''hus,  hus!" 
was  repeated.  Brown  closed  his  book  and 
said,  ''Let  us  pray."  The  darkey  on  the 
doorstep,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  melon, 
myself  sitting  just  inside  the  door  with  my 
eyes  on  the  darkey  was  the  situation  so  far 
as  we  two  were  concerned.  Brown  prayed 
and  we  watched.  But  alas !  the  next  effort 
the  cow  made  was  with  a  determined  will. 
The  old  man  again  renewed  his  efforts  to 
protect  his  melon,  and  said  "hus,  hus, 
hus!"  but  all  in  vain.  The  cow  ate  it  and 
went  on  her  way  rejoicing.  Brown  con- 
cluded his  prayer,  and  the  old  darkey,  with 
a  sad  face,  looked  up  and  said,  ''She  got 
it. ' '  Mrs.  B.  gave  him  another  piece,  and 
his  face  brightened  up  and  all  passed  off 
pleasantly. 
I  loved  this  man  Brown  and  his  family, 

44 


notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
Methodist.  I  soon  learned  that  he  had  a 
brother  and  two  sisters,  all  Methodists  and 
good  people,  the  children  of  a  Methodist 
preacher.  How  glad  I  was  to  be  in  com- 
pany with  pious,  well-to-do  people.  I  loved 
to  be  with  them,  but  I  thought  if  they 
knew  how  wicked  I  was  they  would  not 
allow  me  to  stay  among  them.  Brown's 
youngest  sister,  Mary,  was  not  married, 
and  I  delighted  to  form  an  acquaintance 
with  her.  But  I  was  ashamed  while  in  her 
company,  she  was  so  pure  and  chaste,  and 
I  so  defiled  with  sin.  Her  brother  proposed 
to  me  to  go  with  her  on  Sunday  to  the 
Methodist  church.  God  knew  I  intended  to 
try  to  do  better;  and  I  went,  thinking  a 
good  sermon  v/ould  strengthen  my  inten- 
tion of  mending  my  ways.  The  church 
was  very  good  and  Triplett  preached  again. 

chapter  viii. 

Cliff's  First  Note  to  Miss  Mary. 

I  was  delighted  with  the  Methodist 
preacher  and  preaching,  and  still  more 
delighted  with  the  company  of  Miss  Mary 
B.     I  had  been  in  the  company  of  quite  a 

45 


number  of  young  ladies,  but  never  had  felt 
towards  any  of  them  just  as  I  did  towards 
her.  Now  this  girl  was  just  the  kind  of 
of  company  I  had  always  wanted  to  keep, 
and  if  I  could  have  found  and  kept  such 
company  sooner  I  would  never  have  strayed 
so  far  from  the  path  of  right.  Mother  told 
me  when  I  left  home  that  I  would  not  stay 
at  Brown's  three  days,  but  I  stayed  three 
weeks  before  I  went  home  to  see  her.  She 
asked  me  if  I  was  going  back.  I  told  her 
I  was.  I  then  told  her  all  about  my  home 
and  that  Mr.  Brown  had  family  prayers 
night  and  morning,  and  how  I  enjoyed  it, 
and  that  he  had  a  good  wife,  and  she  was 
so  very  kind  to  me,  and  that  they  were 
Methodists.  Also  that  Brown  had  a  sister 
about  17  years  old,  and  she  was  a  Method- 
ist, and  that  I  had  gone  with  her  to  Meth- 
odist preaching  the  Sunday  before,  That  I 
thought  they  were  all  very  good  people, 
especially  Miss  Mary,  and  I  liked  to  stay 
among  them. 

As  I  became  better  acquainted  with  the 
young  lady  the  more  I  liked  her.  She  had 
another  brother  named  Jim;  I  worked  for 
Bill.  Jim  was  married  and  he  and  his 
family  were  very  good  and  kind  to  me; 
they  were  methodists.  Their  little  boys, 
46 


Willie  and  Johnnie,  and  their  cousin  Jim- 
mie,  were  around  the  shop  where  I  was  at 
work  every  day.  The  little  boys  would 
bring  me  large  apples  from  the  orchard 
near  by,  more  than  I  could  possibly  eat.  I 
would  lay  them  up  and  for  weeks  have 
plenty  of  good  apples  to  eat.  This  extreme 
kindness  caused  me  to  think.  I  thought 
surely  if  these  people  knew  how  bad  I  had 
been,  they  would  not  be  so  kind,  or  if  they 
did  find  out  they  would  turn  from  me  in 
disgust  and  I  might  seek  shelter  some- 
where else.  But  none  of  .these  things 
came  upon  me  and  I  kept  my  position. 
Right  there  in  the  shop  I  made  up  my 
mind  that  I  would  never  do  another  mean 
thing. 

One  Sunday  morning  I  got  out  my  razor 
and  shaved.  Mrs.  Brown  looked  a  little 
sour  and  asked  me  why  I  did  not  shave 
Saturday  evening.  I  had  always  thought 
up  to  this  time  that  Sunday  was  the  day 
to  shave.  I  had  a  fiddle  with  me,  and  I 
could  plainly  see  that  they  were  not 
pleased  with  that.  So  I  sold  the  fiddle 
and  quit  shaving  on  Sunday,  and  every- 
thing seemed  very  pleasant  afterwards. 
You  see,  for  Miss  Mary's  sake,  I  did  not 
want  to  do  anything  that  would  displease 

47 


any  of  her  people  for  fear  it  might  dis- 
please her.  But  this  was  not  all;  I  really- 
wanted  to  be  good. 

After  some  length  of  time  I  ventured  to 
write  Miss  Mary  a  note  and  sent  it  by  little 
Will.  She  answered  it  in  a  very  pleasant 
manner.  I  read  it  with  delight,  but  was 
ashamed  of  myself  for  writing  to  her. 
My  note  so  badly  written  and  worse  spelled; 
her's  so  beautifully  written,  correctly 
spelled  and  in  such  good  language.  I 
really  felt  bad.  But  God  knew  my  heart, 
that  I  intended  to  be  a  better  boy,  and  I 
thought  to  associate  with  such  a  girl  was 
the  best  way  for  me  to  accomplish  it;  and 
then  the  association  to  me  at  least  was 
very  pleasant. 

Some  time  after  this  I  called  on  her  at 
her  father's  and  had  a  talk  with  her  con- 
cerning my  past  life  and  my  determination 
to  do  better.  I  told  her  that  my  father 
was  dead  and  my  mother  was  not  a  Chris- 
tian; that  I  was  a  poor  boy  and  of  the 
chance  I  had  of  going  to  school,  and  of 
my  mother's  objecting  to  the  plan,  and 
how  it  had  hardened  me  and  caused  me  to 
do  many  wrong  things  that  otherwise  I 
would  not  have  done.  I  also  told  her  that 
I  had  neither  brother  nor  sister,  and  that  I 

48 


wanted  to  associate  with  good  people.  My 
story  seemed  to  effect  her  a  good  deal. 
She  was  sorry  for  me  and  told  me  she 
would  gladly  help  me  in  any  way  that  she 
was  able.  This  helped  me  greatly  in  my 
determination  to  be  good. 

I  had  not  been  at  Brown's  many  months 
until  I  had  another  chance  to  go  to  school. 
Brown  would  not  let  me  off  to  go;  he  said 
I  was  just  now  beginning  to  learn  my 
trade,  and  it  would  not  do  me  much  good 
to  go  to  school^  the  length  of  time  that  I 
had  been  offered;  unless  I  could  go  longer. 
He  did  not  want  to  give  me  up,  and  said 
to  me,  "I  will  learn  you  all  I  can  at  home.'' 
He  was  a  good  scholar  and  did  as  he 
promised,  and  I  gave  up  going  to  school. 

chapter  ix. 

His  Marriage  and  Conversion. 

I  was  very  fond  of  Miss  Mary's  com- 
pany, and  called  on  her  again  at  her  fath- 
er's which  was  near  by.  Her  father  and 
mother  both  treated  me  very  kindly,  and  I 
became  very  much  attached  to  the  family, 
which  consisted  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Brown, 
their  daughter,  and  a  maiden  lady  who 
had  been  in  the  family  for  twenty-five 

49 


years,  and  who  had  nursed  Miss  Mary  and 
was  still  watching  over  her  charge,  and 
thought  indeed  she  was  quite  too  good  a 
girl  to  have  the  '  likes  of  that  fellow  call- 
ing on  her."  Indeed,  she  was  very  much 
surprised  at  the  father  and  mother  to  let 
him  come  there  at  all.  I  was  afraid  to  call 
on  the  young  lady  very  often  for  fear  I 
migh  disgust  the  family,  so  I  often  wrote 
notes  and  sent  them  by  little  Will. 

After  we  became  better  acquainted  she 
asked  me  if  I  would  take  offense  if  she 
should  offer  some  criticisms  on  my  notes. 
I  thanked  her  and  assured  her  that  I  would 
be  pleased  to  have  her  as  a  critic  and  in- 
structor. And  I  thank  God  to-day  that  I 
ever  found  that  young  lady. 

As  I  have  said  before  I  was  so  hard- 
hearted that  I  never  shed  a  tear  when  my 
father  died,  but  I  had  not  read  many  of  her 
letters  till  I  began  to  feel.  One  evening  I 
received  a  letter  and  went  to  the  spring  to 
read  it  (I  remember  the  very  spot),  and  as 
I  read  the  great  deep  of  my  heart  was  bro- 
ken up,  and  the  tears  flowed  apace.  Right 
then  and  there  I  felt  in  my  heart  that  I 
loved  Miss  Mary  as  I  had  never  loved  any 
one  before,  and  made  up  my  mind  at  once 
that  I  would  ask  her  for  heart  and  hand. 

50 


We  were  both  ver}^  young  to  think  of  mar- 
rying, but  I  felt  that  I  needed  the  company 
and  help  of  just  such  a  person  all  the  time, 
and  I  determined  to  propose  to  her  the  very 
first  opportunity  that  I  had;  and  so  I  did, 
but  got  no  answer,  good  nor  bad,  for  two 
long  weeks  (and  they  were  long  ones,  too). 
I  had  time  to  think  a  great  many  things. 
I  just  imagined  that  some  one  had  told  her 
father  and  mother  all  about  me,  and  that 
my  suit  was  all  in  vain.  I  met  her  two  or 
three  times  and  received  a  note  from  her 
during  the  two  weeks,  but  not  one  word 
did  she  say  about  the  question.  All  that 
kept  me  from  giving  up  in  despair  was 
that  she  treated  me  kindly.  When  I  was 
just  about  as  blue  as  a  fellow  can  get  in  a 
love  affair,  the  answer  came  in  the  affirm- 
ative, and  I  was  happy.  Her  father  con- 
sented to  the  marriage,  but  her  mother 
would  not,  and  I  could  not  blame  her. 
Mary  was  the  youngest  of  the  family  and 
the  only  one  at  home.  It  would  have 
been  hard  for  her  mother  to  have  given 
her  up  to  any  one,  but  especially  to  a 
young  man  whose  morals  had  been  very 
bad,— and  she  had  found  it  out.  Now  this 
was  a  great  trial  to  me,  but  I  had  her  fath- 
er's consent,  and  I  had  a  hope  that  her 

51 


mother  would  become  reconciled.  So  we 
waited  a  good  long  while,  but  the  longer 
we  waited  the  worse  matters  got.  At  last 
I  determined  to  steal  the  girl  if  she  would 
run  off  with  me.  She  said  she  would  if 
her  mother  would  not  consent,  and  she 
would  not.  So,  with  her  father's  help,  I 
made  my  arrangements  to  steal  her;  but 
her  mother  overheard  our  plans,  and  when 
she  found  we  would  marry  any  way,  she 
said  we  should  marry  at  home.  And  on 
the  24th  of  November  1868,  Rev.  T.  L. 
Triplett  married  us  at  her  father's  house, 
That  was  24  years  ago  last  November,  and 
although  there  are  plenty  of  silver  threads 
among  the  dark  brown  tresses,  she  is  the 
same  dear  girl  to  me.  It  has  always  been 
a  wonder  to  me  how  she  and  her  father 
could  place  so  much  confidence  in  such  a 
poor,  ignorant,  bad  boy  as  I  was. 

I  had  quit  my  meanness  and  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  Methodists  had 
been  badly  misrepresented.  I  now  thought 
they  were  about  the  best— instead  of  the 
worst— people  in  the  world.  One  day 
Mrs.  Clay  and  I  were  talking  about 
church  matters;  she  said  she  would  like 
for  us  both  to  belong  to  the  same  church. 
She  said  she  was  willing  to  go  to  the  Lu- 

52 


theran  church  with  me  if  I  was  not  wilHng 
to  go  with  her.  I  told  her  I  thought  one 
was  as  good  as  the  other,  and  as  her  father 
was  a  Methodist  minister  it  would  be  bet- 
for  me  to  go  with  her.  So  I  joined  with 
her,  but  I  was  not  regenerated.  My  mind 
was  changed  but  not  my  heart;  but  it  was 
not  the  fault  of  the  Lutheran  church  that 
I  was  not  converted.  I  wanted  pure  and 
undefiled  religion,  but  did  not  want  anyone 
to  know  when  I  got  it.  I  thought  my 
wife's  brother  Jim  was  the  best  man 
I  ever  saw.  We  went  hunting,  fishing,  to 
town  and  to  church  together.  I  thought  if 
I  could  only  be  as  good  as  he  was  I  would 
be  sure  of  the  kingdom.  So  one  day  when 
Triplett  was  preaching  on  the  hill  in  the 
old  pine  field  where  I  heard  my  first 
Methodist  preaching  and  the  drunk  man 
walk  around  on  his  hands  and  feet,  Jimi  and 
I  were  there  side  by  side.  He  preached 
with  great  power,  and  to  my  great  surprise 
Jim  fell  on  his  knees  and  began  to  cry  for 
mercy.  I  felt  that  if  I  did  not  do  the  same 
the  devil  would  get  me  in  less  than  an 
hour.  So  I  knelt  by  his  side,  and  in  less 
than  thirty  minutes  I  was  soundly  con- 
verted. All  my  trouble  now  was  that 
there  were  so  few  r)resent  for  me  to  tell  it 


to.  I  just  wanted  everybody  to  know  I 
had  religion,  and  wanted  everybody  in  the 
world  to  feel  just  as  I  did.  That  was 
twenty-four  years  ago  last  August,  and  I 
thank  God  I  have  never  doubted  my  con- 
version for  one  moment  from  that  day  to 
this. 

chapter  x. 

His  Mother's  Conversion. 

We  were  boarding  with  Mrs.  Clay's 
father  when  I  was  converted.  Oh!  how 
different  the  world  seemed  to  me.  The 
trees,  the  grass,  and  the  flowers  all  looked 
as  if  they  had  come  out  in  a  new  garb. 
Neither  the  outside  nor  the  inside  of  the 
shop  in  which  I  worked  looked  like  it  did 
before.  The  tools  seemed  to  cut  better, 
and  wood  was  not  so  tough.  And  all  the 
folks  seemed  so  different.  In  fact  every- 
thing was  changed,  but  the  biggest  change 
was  in  me.  I  thought  I  loved  Miss  Mary 
(who  is  now  Mrs.  Clay)  before,  but  I  did 
not  know  how  to  love  her  until  I  learned 
to  love  the  blessed  Saviour.  And  I  want  to 
say  right  here,  no  one  can  love  their  fellow 
creatures  as  they  ought,  until  they  have 
given  God  their  hearts  and  love  Him  su- 

54 


premely.  No  husband  can  love  his  wife, 
nor  the  wife  her  husband  as  they  ought  to 
love  each  other,  without  the  love  of  God  in 
their  hearts.  Parents  cannot  love  their 
children  nor  children  their  parents  as  they 
ought  without  it.  The  young  lady  cannot 
love  her  lover,  neither  can  the  young  man 
love  and  respect  the  young  lady  as  he 
ought  without  it.  We  all  need  it,  and 
must  have  it  if  we  would  make  a  success- 
ful journey  through  this  world  of  sorrow, 
and  gain  Heaven  in  the  end.  I  had  heard 
so  much  talk  about  what  folks  called 
religion.  I  had  heard  mother  speak  of  it 
in  a  slighty  w^ay,  and  a  number  of  others 
would  say  this  or  that  one  got  religion. 
Then  I  did  not  know  what  it  was,  but 
thank  God  I  know  the  meaning  of  it  now% 
and  my  great  desire  is  to  sing  His  praise, 
and  to  tell  others  of  His  great  love. 

'  'Now  to  the  Lord  a  noble  song, 
Now  may  His  love  employ  my  tongue, 
And  let  me  speak  His  glorious  name, 
And  all  His  boundless  love  proclaim." 

I  had  heard  it  preached,  talked,  sung 
and  prayed,  but  still  I  could  not  under- 
stand it,  but  when  God  came  to  me  and 
said,  ''Son,  thy  sins  are  all  forgiven,  then 
I  understood  it,  and  I  have  never  doubted 

55 


that  visit.  Doubted  it,  no  indeed.  When 
a  friend  comes  and  knocks  at  your  door, 
and  you  open  the  door  and  welcome  him 
in,  and  he  sits  down  and  talks  with  you, 
and  you  with  him,  you  know  it,  you  can't 
doubt  it.  Jesus  is  our  best  friend.  He  is 
a  refuge,  a  strength  and  a  present  help  in 
trouble.  I  shall  always  thank  God  that 
He  came  to  the  door  of  my  heart,  and 
that  I  opened  the  door  and  welcomed  Him 
in,  and  that  He  dwells  in  me  and  walks 
with  me,  and  His  love  constrains  me  and 
upholds  me.  Blessed  be  the  name  of  the 
Lord.  No  tongue  can  express  His  love, 
nor  can  a  scribe  describe  it. 

''Could  we  v/ith  ink  the  ocean  fill, 

And  were  the  heavens  a  parchment  made, 
And  every  single  stick  a  quill, 

And  every  man  a  scribe  by  trade, 
To  write  the  love  of  God  alone 

Would  drain  the  ocean  dry. 
Nor  would  the  scroll  contain  the  whole. 

Though  stretched  from  sky  to  sky." 

The  love  of  God  shed  abroad  in  a  man's 
heart  makes  him  love  everybody  good  or 
bad.  I  loved  all.  I  loved  mean  people, 
but  hated  their  m.ean  ways.  Everything 
seemed  so  different  to  me.  I  used  to  do 
things  and  keep  from  doing  other  things 
to  please  Miss  Mary  and  her  folks.     But 


when  I  got  on  the  other  side,  I  saw  the 
thing  to  do  was  to  serve  and  please  the 
blessed  Jesus,  and  that  would  please 
them.  So  when  father  Brown  was  away 
from  home,  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  hold  family 
prayers.  Oh,  what  a  cross,  but  I  did  the 
best  I  could,  and  the  Lord  blessed  us  day 
by  day.  Some  time  after  my  conversion 
Rev.  Triplett  held  a  protracted  meeting 
near  my  mother's.  Mrs.  Clay  and  I  went 
down  to  mother's  to  attend  the  meeting. 
When  we  got  to  the  old  home,  everything 
looked  as  if  it  had  been  changed  since  I 
was  there  last.  It  did  not  seem  like  the 
same  place.  But  there  was  the  same  old 
kitchen,  with  its  wide  fire  place  where 
mother  baked  her  loaves  in  the  old  Dutch 
oven  (for  she  had  no  stove  then).  She 
had  a  clay  oven  in  the  yard  where  she 
baked  pies,  custards  and  cakes.  There 
were  the  same  old  oaks,  cedars,  sycamores, 
fruit  trees,  and  the  balm  of  gilead,  where 
I  got  the  buds  from,  the  cat,  all  in  their 
places.  But  they  did  not  look  like  they 
used  to  look.  There  was  the  house  where 
the  giddy  and  gay  often  gathered  and 
stepped  to  the  worldly  music  that  I  fur- 
nished them.  I  thought  then  that  was 
happiness.     But  as  I  enter  that  room  this 

57 


time,  I  feel  that  I  am  done  with  such 
pastime.  I  can't  bear  it;  I  hate  it.  The 
old  clock  from  which  I  had  taken  the  bullet 
stood  on  the  mantel.  When  it  struck  the 
time  of  day,  the  music  of  the  wire  seemed 
strangely  sweet.  This  was  my  home  that 
I  hated  and  left;  here  dwelt  a  mother 
whose  son  had  hated  her  and  left  her 
alone.  But  thank  God,  when  he  comes 
this  time,  his  heart  is  overflowing  with 
love  for  his  mother.  She  had  some  sinful 
ways  that  I  hated,  but  Oh,  how  I  loved 
her  now.  Yes,  when  I  saw  her  face  for 
the  first  time  after  my  conversion,  how 
different  it  looked,  and  I  think  the  face  of 
her  boy  looked  quite  as  different  to  her. 
0,  how  I  loved  my  dear  old  mother  now. 
She  went  with  us  to  church;  she  had  heard 
Bro.  T.  preach  before,  as  he  had  been 
preaching  at  the  new  Methodist  church 
some  time.  She  seemed  to  like  him  very 
well,  though  he  was  a  Methodist  preacher. 
He  preached  that  day  with  great  power, 
the  Spirit  came  down,  sinners  were  con- 
victed, mourners  converted,  and  believers 
made  happy.  I  was  so  anxious  for  mother 
to  be  a  Christian,  and  I  saw  she  v/as 
weeping.  I  walked  down  the  aisle  to  her 
and  asked  her  if  she  did  not  want  to  be  a 

58 


Christian;  and  she  said  she  did.  I  then 
asked  her  to  go  with  me  to  the  altar;  which 
she  did.  I  stayed  with,  and  prayed  for 
her  with  all  my  heart,  and  in  a  short 
while  she  was  converted.  That  was  the 
happiest  day  of  Cliff's  life  except  one, 
that  one  you  all  remember.  Now,  dear  boys 
and  girls,  if  you  have  an  unconverted 
father  or  mother,  and  you  are  a  Christian, 
pray  for  them,  talk  to  them,  and  lead  them 
to  the  altar  of  prayer.  God  will  hear 
your  prayers  and  bless  your  efforts. 

chapter  xi. 
Cliff's  Severe  Trial. 

Immediately  after  mother's  conversion, 
she  spoke  of  joining  the  Methodist  church. 
I  told  her  to  study  on  the  matter  awhile, 
and  then  if  she  thought  she  could  be  better 
satisfied  in  the  Methodist  church,  to  join 
it;  and  if  not,  to  remain  in  the  Lutheran 
church,  where  she  had  been  a  member  for 
many  years.  After  considering  the  matter 
for  some  weeks,  she  decided  to  remain 
where  she  was.  But  I  erected  a  family 
altar  in  mother's  house  before  I  went  home. 

We  were  still  boarding  with  Mrs.  Clay's 
father,  and  after  the  meeting  we  returned 

59 


home  happy  and  delighted  with  the 
thought  that  mother  was  now  traveling 
with  us  toward  the  home  of  the  good. 

We  spent  the  latter  part  of  the  summer 
and  fall  in  joy  and  thanksgiving  to  God 
for  His  goodness  to  us.  We  had  a  very 
pleasant  Christmas,  But  0!  how  soon  joy 
and  pleasure  can  be  turned  into  sorrow 
and  weeping.  On  the  30th  day  of  Decem- 
ber, 1869,  a  little  daughter  was  born  to  us. 
Mrs.  Clay  was  taken  with  a  violent  fever, 
and  the  doctor  told  me  she  must  die;  there 
was  no  hope;  he  could  do  no  more.  To 
think  of  giving  her  up  was  more  than  I 
could  bear;  but  I  had  learned  to  take 
everything  to  the  Lord  in  prayer,  and  I 
knew  he  was  the  Great  Physician  of  Soul 
and  body,  and  I  went  to  him,  and  it 
seemed  as  if  my  soul  melted  as  I  told  him 
how  I  loved  her,  and  how  much  help  she 
was  to  me.  Just  to  sum  it  up  in  a  few 
words,  I  felt  like  it  would  kill  me  if  she 
died.  I  had  never  realized  till  then  how 
much  I  did  love  her.  I  had  loved  her  as 
a  friend,  as  a  sweetheart,  as  a  wife,  all 
combined.  But  the  crowning  climax  was 
put  upon  all  when  I  loved  her  as  the  mother 
of  our  precious  little  one.  When  I  was 
just  beginning  to  realize  this  new  joy,  how 

60 


was  I  to  give  her  up?  I  held  on  to  her, 
as  it  were,  with ,  one  hand,  and  on  to  God 
with  the  other.  For  two  long  weeks  she 
suffered  agonies  untold,  without  any 
change,  only  for  the  worse.  On  the  16th 
day  of  her  illness,  as  we  stood  around  her 
bed,  father,  mother,  brothers,  sisters, 
friends  and  doctor,  all  had  given  her  up. 
They  all  thought  she  was  dying,  and  she 
thought  so  too.  The  anxious  father  and 
mother  and  friends  were  still  praying  for 
her,  although  it  seemed  as  if  all  hope  was 
gone.  Just  about  this  time  our  beloved 
pastor.  Rev.  Triplett,  came  in.  I  asked 
him  to  join  us  in  prayer  for  her  one  time 
more.  We  all  knelt  and  he  prayed,  and  I 
have  never  heard  such  a  prayer  before  nor 
since.  It  seemed  to  me  that  he  took  hold 
of  the  very  horns  of  the  altar  and  held  on 
till  Heaven  and  earth  came  together.  The 
room  was  filled  with  the  glory  of  God. 
While  he  was  praying  I  promised  the  Lord 
if  he  would  answer  our  prayers  I  would 
do  anything  to  advance  His  cause  that  the 
Spirit  impressed  upon  me  as  a  duty,  no 
matter  how  heavy  a  cross  it  might  be. 
Before  the  prayer  was  ended  something 
said.  '  'Your  prayers  are  answered. ' '  and 
thank  God,  they  were  answered;  that  very 

61 


day  she  took  a  turn  for  the  better,  and 
slowly  recovered  her  health  and  strength. 
And  I  was  just  as  happy  as  I  could  be, 
with  Mary  and  the  little  one.  Mary!  0, 
what  a  sweet  name.  I  love  that  name 
because  it  was  the  name  of  the  mother  of 
the  blessed  Jesus.  I  loved  my  precious 
wife  now  more  than  ever.  Some  may  not 
think  so,  but  I  know  I  now  loved  God  more 
than  ever  before,  because  in  this  severe 
affliction  I  had  been  drawn  near  to  Him, 
and  he  heard  and  answered  my  prayers; 
and  the  more  you  love  God,  the  more  you 
will  love  your  wife  and  everybody  else. 
As  I  have  already  said,  it  was  a  great 
cross  to  me  to  hold  family  prayers.  I 
could  do  very  well  now  when  we  were 
alone,  but  when  we  had  company  I  was 
tempted  to  omit  it,  but  my  promise  would 
come  right  up  before  me,  and  there  was  no 
getting  out  of  it.  And  I  would  say  right 
here  that  the  promise  I  made  to  God  beside 
what  seemed  to  be  the  death-bed  of  my 
wife,  has  been  a  great  stimilus  to  me  in 
the  performance  of  my  duty.  If  at  any 
time  I  feel  disposed  to  shirk  duty  in  ever 
so  little  a  thing,  God's  Spirit  brings  that 
memorable  scene  before  my  mind  so  viv- 
idly that  I  can  almost  hear  Him  say,  '  'You 

62 


promised  to  do  your  duty  in  all  things  if  I 
would  spare  your  wife;  have  I  not  done 
it?"  That  always  settles  the  question  at 
once. 

When  the  weather  became  warmer  and 
I  thought  Mrs.  Clay  and  the  little  one 
were  able  to  take  the  trip,  we  went  to  see 
mother.  Now  grandmother— on  my  moth- 
er's side— was  still  living,  and  lived  near 
mother's,  so  we  concluded  to  stop  awhile 
with  her,  and  then  go  to  the  old  home, 
grandma  was  blind,  and  had  been  for 
years.  She  had  never  seen  Mrs.  Clay, 
but  she  had  learned  to  know  her  by  her 
voice,  but  as  it  had  been  so  long  since  she 
had  heard  her  speak  we  thought  perhaps 
she  had  forgotten  the  voice;  so  I  said, 
*'We  will  not  make  ourselves  known,  and 
see  if  grandma  will  know  who  it  is.  So 
Mrs.  Clay  went  in  and  said,  ''Good  eve- 
ning, Grandma,''  and  the  dear  old  soul 
said  ''Why,  if  this  ain't  Mary;  howdy, 
howdy!  Where  is  Cliff  and  the  baby?" 
I  then  spoke  to  her  and  handed  her  the 
baby.  She  felt  over  it  and  said,  "It's  a 
mighty  little  baby."  About  this  time 
mother  came  in,  and  we  had  a  great  meet- 
ing indeed,  even  the  great-grand-daughter 
meeting   the    great-grandmother.      They 

63 


were  all  glad  indeed  that  we  had  lived  to 
meet  again  on  earth.  They  all  looked 
upon  Mrs.  Clay  almost  as  one  raised  from 
the  dead.  We  spent  an  hour  or  two  very 
pleasantly  with  grandma,  and  then  we 
took  mother  with  us  and  went  to  the  old 
home  for  a  few  days. 

CHAPTER   XII. 

How  She  Found  it  Out. 

After  spending  a  few  days  at  the  old 
home,  we  went  back  to  our  boarding  place 
and  entered  upon  the  duties  and  trials  of 
Hfe. 

We  did  not  remain  at  father  B.'s  very 
long  after  this.  As  I  had  learned  a  good 
trade — that  of  making  wagons  and  bug- 
gies— I  was  now  prepared  to  set  up  a  shop 
of  my  own.  I  could  do  both  the  wood  and 
iron  work,  and  also  the  painting. 

The  people  around  my  old  home  wanted 
me  to  settle  there  and  run  a  shop,  and  as 
there  was  no  shop  of  this  kind  in  the  com- 
munity, and  mother  was  alone  and  had  no 
one  to  look  after  the  farm,  I  thought  it  was 
the  best  thing  I  could  do.  So  I  laid  the 
matter  before  Mrs.  Clay,  who,  after  some 
consideration,  decided  with  me  that  it  was 

64 


best  for  us  to  go.  It  was  a  hard  trial  for 
her  to  leave  her  father  and  mother  and 
make  her  home  among  strangers.  She  set 
great  store  by  her  mother  in  sickness,  and 
well  she  might;  for  she  was  the  best  nurse 
in  sickness  I  ever  saw.  I  shall  never  for- 
get the  long  weary  nights  she  watched  with 
me  at  the  bedside  of  my  wife  in  her  severe 
illness.  Although  she  was  very  much 
opposed  to  me  marrying  Mary,  she  soon 
got  over  it,  and  was  very  kind  to  us. 

Some  have  asked  me  this  question: 
* 'Cliff,  how  came  Mrs.  B.  to  overhear  you 
and  Mr.  B.  when  you  were  laying  your 
plans  to  steal  Miss  Mary?"  It  was  this 
way:  ''Father  B.  had  a  shop  in  his  yard, 
and  at  one  end  of  the  shop  there  was  a 
chimney,  and  against  the  chimney  was  a 
little  house  in  which  they  kept  sweet  pota- 
toes. The  crop  of  the  year  had  already 
been  stored  in  this  little  house.  Father  B. 
and  I  were  in  the  shop  laying  our  plans 
and  setting  our  time,  and  Mrs.  B.  was  in 
the  potato  house  getting  potatoes  for  din- 
ner, and  hearing  every  word  we  said,  but 
we  did  not  know  it  at  the  time.  I  intend- 
ed to  have  Miss  Mary  if  I  had  to  steal  her, 
and  her  mother  found  it  out  there  and  then 
that  it  was  a  settled  fact,  and  that  all  of 

65 


the  family  except  herself  was  in  favor  of 
the  marriage.  She  told  us  afterwards 
that  the  conversation  she  overheard  while 
in  the  potato  house  caused  her  to  give  up 
for  us  to  marry. 

We  moved  to  my  old  home,  and  I  built 
shops,  and  also  an  L  to  mother's  house.  I 
went  to  a  good  deal  of  trouble  and  expense 
to  get  fixed  up  ready  for  work,  and  had  a 
good  custom;  but  we  had  no  health.  We 
all  took  the  chills.  Mrs.  Clay  and  I  both 
took  them  the  same  day,  and  our  little  girl 
took  them  the  next  day;  she  had  them  for 
six  months,  and  they  hung  on  to  us  for 
eighteen  months  straight  along.  They  did 
not  seem  to  hurt  me  so  much,  but  Mrs. 
Clay's  health  gave  way,  and  the  doctor 
told  me  she  would  never  be  any  better  till 
I  moved  her  away  from  that  place.  Now, 
this  was  a  hard  blow  on  a  poor  fellow.  I 
had  spent  a  good  deal  of  money  and  time* 
and  was  just  now  fixed  to  make  money  and 
live  happy,  if  we  could  have  been  well.  I 
did  not  want  to  lose  all  I  had  done,  and  I 
thought  perhaps  the  doctor  was  mistaken 
and  Mary  would  get  well  without  moving. 
So  we  still  kept  trying  new  remedies,  hop- 
ing for  better,  but  getting  worse  every 
day.     I  did  not  know  what  to  do.     Mother 

66 


Brown  would  often  come  and  stay  a  few 
days  with  us,  and  every  time  she  came  she 
would  tell  me  she  was  afraid  we  would 
never  get  well  there.  She  did  not  want 
me  to  take  Mary  there  from  the  first.  And 
just  about  the  time  that  I  had  come  to  the 
place  that  I  did  not  know  what  to  do,  she 
came  to  spend  a  few  days  with  us.  She 
saw  at  once  that  Mary  was  a  great  deal 
worse.  She  came  to  me  in  the  shop  and 
said,  ''Cliff,  I  hate  to  think  of  you  losing 
all  you  have  done  here,  but  I  am  going  to 
be  candid  with  you;  if  5'ou  don't  take 
Mary  out  of  this  sickly  place  you  will  be  a 
widower  in  less  than  six  months.''  This 
was  enough.  I  said  '  'Ma,  I  can  give  up 
anything,  everything  for  her,  and  I  will  do 
it."  So  when  father  B.  came  to  take  Ma 
home  he  took  my  wife  and  baby  also.  I 
rented  a  house  and  lot  near  father  B.'s 
moved  to  it  and  set  up  shop.  We  had  not 
been  there  long  till  we  got  rid  of  the  chills, 
and  I  was  well  and  making  money.  I 
rented  the  house  and  lot  for  another 
year,  the  year  ending  the  last  of  March.  I 
paid  the  rent  in  advance.  With  all  our 
afflictions  and  building  and  moving  I  was 
only  thirty  dollars  in  debt,  and  had  sixty 
dollars'  worth  of  work  in  my  shop.     I  had 

67 


bought  five  acres  of  land  near  by  on  which 
to  build  the  next  year.  On  the  4th  of  Sept. 
of  this  year  (1873),  another  daughter 
was  born  to  us.  Our  family  now  number- 
ed six.  Mrs.  Clay's  health  was  so  bad 
that  she  was  compelled  to  have  someone 
to  stay  with  her  all  the  time.  Mrs.  Jane 
E.  and  her  little  boy  came  to  live  with  us. 
This  was  a  great  community  for  work  and 
good  pay.  And  as  I  had  more  work  than 
I  could  do,  I  took  a  young  man  by  the  name 
of  Van  P.  to  learn  him  the  trade.  He  was 
a  good  man,  and  had  married  Miss  Bettie 
S. ,  the  young  lady  to  whom  I  had  gone  to 
school.  We  were  glad  to  have  them  in  the 
community.  We  had  arranged  for  a  big 
winter's  work,  to  be  ready  to  leave  this 
place  the  last  of  next  March.  But  about 
the  tenth  of  December,  one  morning  before 
daylight  the  man  who  owned  the  house 
and  lot  came  in  and  said  to  us,  "I  want 
this  house  at  Christmas."  I  tried  to 
reason  with  him;  told  him  I  had  rented 
the  place  until  March,  and  that  he  knew  I 
had  paid  the  rent  until  that  time,  but  all 
to  no  avail.  He  said  he  must  have  his 
house  at  Christmas.  0!  how  dark  everything 
seemed  that  morning.  What  was  I  to  do? 
In  the  dead  of  winter,  with   an   afflicted 

68 


wife  and  little  children,  and  nowwhere  to 
go;  and  yet  I  must  go.  I  don't  think  I 
ever  felt  the  Lord  any  nearer  to  me  than 
He  came  that  morning  at  family  prayer. 
He  gave  me  the  full  assurance  that  He 
would  lead  me  out  of  this  trouble,  and  He 
did,  though  the  way  was  long  and  dark; 
and  I  know  it  was  for  my  good.  That 
move  has  always  been  a  mystery  to  me; 
for  the  man  that  owned  the  property  had 
always  been  my  friend,  and  he  is  a  good 
friend  of  mine  to-day. 

chapter  xiii. 

Cliff  Takes  Care  of  the  Children. 

On  the  26th  of  December,  1873,  I  went 
to  work,  with  my  young  man  Van  P.  to 
help  me.  With  our  axes  we  cleared  off  a 
place  on  my  lot,  on  which  we  built  a  very 
small  cabin  and  lumber  house,  and  on  the 
27th  of  January,  1874,  we  moved  into  the 
cabin.  That  year  was  one  of  great  afflic- 
tion. Minnie,  our  baby,  lay  at  death's 
door  for  weeks.  But  I  prayed  and  vowed 
I  would  be  a  better  man  if  the  Lord  would 
spare  her  life;  and  He  did,  and  I  sought 
daily  to  please  him.  About  this  time  I 
was  called  on  to  superintend    a  Sunday 

69 


school.  The  church  was  five  miles  from 
where  I  lived  and  I  had  no  horse.  Now,  to 
stand  in  my  shop  every  day  and  walk  10 
miles  every  Sunday  was  a  hard  task,  and 
besides  all  this  I  did  not  think  I  was  the 
man  for  that  place.  But  I  remembered  my 
promise  to  the  Lord  if  He  would  spare  my 
loved  ones  and  I  was  afraid  to  say  no,  so  I 
did  the  best  I  could  and  we  had  a  very 
good  Sunday  school.  This  year  I  built 
shops  and  the  next  year  I  built  a  house, 
paled  in  a  yard  and  garden,  planted  vines, 
fruit  trees  and  flowers.  We  had  a  nice 
little  home.  I  had  a  custom  and  made 
money,  and  everything  moved  on  pleasant- 
ly for  a  time,  in  which  time  two  boys  were 
born  to  us,  Jim  in  1875  and  Tom  in  1877. 
We  now  had  four  children.  As  my  shop 
w^as  near  the  house  I  often  helped  Mrs. 
Clay  to  take  care  of  them.  I  will  say 
right  here  but  few  men  know  anything 
about  the  trouble  their  wives  have  with  the 
children.  I  have  seen  men  too  lazy  to  get 
up  to  breakfast  after  their  wives  had  made 
the  fire,  dressed  the  children  and  cooked 
the  breakfast.  I  never  could  see  how  any 
true  man  could  treat  his  wife  that  way. 
A  wife  is  a  companion,  a  partner,  a  part 
of.  ''They  twain  shall  be  one  flesh — 
70 


Matt.  18:5."  A  good  wife  is  God's  greatest 
blessing  to  man.  Young  man,  if  you  are 
thinking  of  asking  the  heart  and  hand  of 
some  fair  daughter,  and  you  are  so  foutu- 
nate  as  to  win  her,  0,  be  true  and  kind  to 
her!  Remember  she  gives  up  all  for  you. 
Young  lady,  first  give  your  heart  to  God 
and  your  hand  to  the  church  and  require 
the  same  of  your  lover.  Then,  when  you 
marry  you  will  erect  a  family  altar  and 
live  happy.  You  may  have  trials  and 
afflictions,  but  you  can  take  it  all  to  the 
Lord  night  and  morning  in  prayer.  I 
know  a  young  couple  who  married  and 
moved  to  a  home  of  their  own.  After 
they  got  things  arranged  and  ate  supper, 
the  wife  brought  the  Bible  she  had  won  at 
Sunday  school,  laid  it  on  the  table  by  her 
husband  and  said  we  must  have  prayers,  I 
have  always  been  used  to  family  prayer 
and  cannot'  retire  without  it,  and  if  you 
won't  read  and  pray,  I  will;  and  she  did. 
Next  morning  she  got  her  breakfast  ready 
and  informed  her  husband  that  she  would 
not  eat  till  after  prayers.  He  took  up  the 
Bible,  read  and  prayed,  and  has  never 
neglected  it  from  that  day  till  this,  0,  for 
such  wives  as  this.  They  are  the  kind  to 
win  the  world  for  Christ.  I  have  a  good 
71    , 


wife,  but  it  always  makes  me  feel  bad  to 
think  of  what  a  sorry  husband  she  has. 
But  I  don't  think  I  ever  was  as  bad  as 
some  I  have  seen.  I  would  make  fires, 
wash  and  dress  the  little  ones  for  break- 
fast, and  would  help  my  wife  cook  if  it 
was  necessary.  I  was  all  right  so  long  as 
my.  wife  did  not  ask  me  for  money  or  to 
take  her  somewhere.  That  always  made 
me  nervous.  I  was  always  hard  up  when 
she  wanted  money  and  just  wanted  me  to 
go  with  her  anywhere.  Now  this  was  a 
long  time  ago — I  do  better  now— but  it 
makes  me  ashamed  every  time  I  think  of 
it,  for  my  wife  was  so  good  and  kind  to  me 
that  it  always  seemed  a  pleasure  to  her  to 
do  me  a  favor.  She  made  my  buggy  and 
carriage  cushions  and  trimmings,  to  save 
me  from  hiring  it  done.  Just  call  on  her 
for  help  and  the  answer  was  always  ''All 
right,  sir, ' '  if  she  had  to  put  the  little  one 
down  to  come.  It  takes  some  men  about 
twenty  years  to  learn  how  to  treat  a  good 
wife,  and  some  never  learn  at  all.  I  know 
men  who  have  good  wives  who  have  no 
more  sense  than  to  think  a  woman  can 
make,  mend,  wash  and  iron  the  clothes, 
cook  and  bake  for  a  large  family,  clean  up 
the  house,  take  care  of  half  a  dozen  chil- 

72 


dren,  and  then  go  to  the  field  and  make  a 
hand  the  whole  summer  and  fall  till  the 
corn  is  gathered  and  the  cotton  picked, 
baled  and  sold.  And  then  if  she  is 
pressed  and  compelled  to  ask  him  for  a 
little  money  to  pay  her  preacher  and  get 
some  things  for  her  and  the  children  he 
will  growl  out,  '  'You  will  have  to  wait  till 
I  sell  my  yaller  cotton."  The  Lord  pity  the 
woman  that  is  cursed  with  such  a  man  as 
that  for  a  husband.  You  may  think  me 
tedious  and  extravagant,  but  I  know 
whereof  I  speak.  I  think  stinginess  was 
my  besetting  sin.  As  I  have  already  said, 
I  helped  my  wife  some  with  the  children, 
although  sometimes  when  she  would  ask 
me  to  keep  Minnie  and  Jim  at  the  shop  so 
that  Baby  Tom  could  sleep  and  let  her 
work,  I  would  think  that  was  more  than 
my  share,  but  I  was  ashamed  to  say  so, 
but  I  thought  I  just  knew  all  about  a 
mother's-  trials  and  troubles  with  the 
children.  But  I  had  an  experience  about 
that  time  that  did  me  a  great  deal  of 
good  and  taught  me  a  lesson  that  I  never 
could  have  learned  in  any  other  school. 
Mother  Brown  was  very  sick  and  Mrs. 
Clay  said  to  me  one  evening  I  want  to  go 
and  see  mother  this  evening  if  you  will 

73 


keep  the  little  ones,  Mattie,  the  oldest  one, 
was  at  school.  I  told  her  I  had  a  buggy 
to  mend  and  it  was  promised  that  evening, 
and  I  did  not  see  how  I  could  be  bothered 
with  them  and  get  anything  done.  But  as 
it  was  nearby,  and  she  looked  so  disap- 
pointed, I  told  her  I  would  keep  them  if 
she  would  not  stay  long.  I  took  the  chil- 
children  to  the  shop  and  went  to  work.  I 
had  not  been  at  work  long  till  Tom  fell 
through  an  open  bench  on  his  face,  getting 
his  eyes  and  mouth  full  of  dirt.  I  quit 
work,  washed  his  face,  and  put  him  in  the 
cradle  and  rocked  him  to  sleep,  and  re- 
turned to  work.  I  was  under  the  buggy 
at  work,  and  told  Jim  to  get  me  a  hatchet, 
for  which  he  had  to  climb  upon  a  box  and 
from  that  to  a  bench,  and  as  he  started 
back  he  fell,  cutting  a  great  gash  above 
his  eye,  from  which  the  blood  flowed 
freely.  Minnie  brought  me  water  and 
cloths,  and  I  washed  and  dressed  his 
wound,  took  off  his  wet,  bloody  clothes, 
put  dry  ones  on  him  and  sat  down  and  held 
him  till  he  went  to  sleep.  Then  I  put  him 
to  bed  and  went  to  work  again.  Minnie 
was  playing  about  the  shop  and  was  not 
giving  me  any  trouble.  And  as  I  worked 
I  thought  of  the  care  of  little  ones  as  I  had 


never  thought  before.  I  was  getting  on 
nicely  with  my  work  and  thinking  Mrs. 
Clay  would  soon  come,  when  all  of  a  sud- 
den I  was  interrupted  by  an  old  hen  squall- 
ing near  by.  I  looked  and  saw  a  hawk 
trying  to  get  a  chick.  I  sprang  from  under 
the  buggy,  grabbed  a  shot  gun  that  stood 
inside  the  shop  and  banged  away  at  the 
hawk.  When  the  gun  fired  I  heard  a 
racket  behind  me.  On  looking  round  I 
saw  Minnie  standing  on  her  head  in  the 
ditch.  Being  lonesome  she  lay  down 
across  the  wheelbarrow  and  went  to  sleep. 
The  crack  of  the  gun  frightened  her  and 
she  jumped  and  turned  the  thing  over, 
throwing  her  on  her  head.  Just  as  I  was 
pulling  her  out  Mrs.  Clay  came  home.  I 
related  and  she  was  so  sorry  I  had  had 
so  much  trouble  with  the  children.  This 
all  happened  in  less  than  three  hours  and 
I  got  my  work  done  on  time.  And  I  know 
I  have  had  more  sympathy  for  my  wife 
ever  since  that  evening.  I  had  often  kept 
the  children  at  the  shop  awhile,  but  if  any- 
thing happened  to  them  their  mother  came 
and  took  them  to  the  house.  But  I  had 
them  all  to  myself  that  evening  and  I 
found  out  things  not  thought  of  before. 
What  we  all  need,  so  as  to  live  right,  is  the 


old-time  religion  in  the  home.     God  grant 
that  we  may  all  have  more  of  that  kind. 

chapter  xiv. 
Christmas  Story  for  Boys. 

Well,  boys  and  girls,  I  will  go  back  a  few 
years  and  tell  you  something  of  how  I 
enjoyed  Christmas  and  what  kind  of  a  time 
we  had  on  that  occasion.  That  was  always 
a  big  time  with  Cliff.  Mother  would  speak 
of  him  coming,  and  we  would  have  fresh 
meats  in  abundance— such  as  sausages, 
liver  hash,  back -bone  and  spare-ribs,  etc. 
Mother  would  have  great  big  yam  ''taters'' 
baked;  kill,  scald  and  scrape  a  fat  chicken; 
knock  a  pumpkin  in  the  head,  and  then 
she  was  ready  for  him. 

One  morning  quite  early  I  was  sitting  by 
my  mother,  anxiously  waiting  for  Xmas  to 
come.  She  told  me  he  would  come  after  a 
short  time.  Suddenly  I  heard  a  loud  knock 
on  the  door.  Mother  bade  him  to  come  in. 
He  lopened  the  door  and  there  he  stood 
with  a  big  switch  in  his  hand.  Children, 
I  tell  you  he  nearly  scared  me  to  death. 
CHff  had  been  a  bad  one,  and  had  no  time 
for  that  kind  of  a  Xmas.  Xmas  times 
affected  everything  in  general.    We  would 

76 


have  a  big  time  at  school  about  that  time, 
and  CHff  generally  was  the  leader.  As  I 
was  captain  I  had  to  have  something  about 
my  hat  or  dress  to  indicate  my  leadership. 
At  least,  I  thought  so.  One  evening  I  told 
mother  that  on  next  day  we  were  going  to 
have  a  parade,  and  as  I  was  to  take  my  fife 
and  march  at  the  head  of  the  company,  I 
must  have  a  badge  to  wear  on  my  hat.  I 
described  to  her  what  kind  of  thing  I 
wanted  made,  and  how  to  tack  up  one  side 
of  my  hat  and  place  the  ornament  on  it. 
She  said  she  could  make  it  out  of  cotton. 
I  proposed  taking  a  candle  and  going  up 
stairs  for  the  cotton,  and  she  should  try  to 
make  the  thing.  She  objected  on  the 
ground  that  I  would  set  the  cotton  on  fire 
with  the  candle.  I  told  her  I  would  be 
careful.  She  consented  reluctantly.  I 
took  the  large  bunch  of  white  cotton  under 
my  aim  and  caught  hold  of  a  small  bunch 
with  the  hand  in  which  I  held  the  candle. 
I  pulled  the  small  bunch  off,  but  the  candle 
went  to  the  wrong  place.  I  had  no  trouble 
blowing  out  the  candle,  but  I  had  trouble 
with  the  cotton.  I  called  aloud,  and  mother 
came  to  my  relief.  We  succeeded  in  sav- 
ing enough  cotton  to  make  the  captain's 
badge,  and  I  marched  at  the  head  of  the 

77 


ranks  next  day.  On  those  days  we  knew 
nothing  of  Xmas  trees  and  Xmas  services 
or  exercises. 

Time  rolled  on.  After  Mrs.  Clay  and 
myself  had  been  keeping  house  for  several 
years,  she,  proposed  that  we  have  a  Xmas 
tree  for  the  benefit  of  our  children  and  a 
few  of  the  young  people  in  the  community. 
I  agreed  to  the  proposal.  Xmas  night 
came,  and  we  had  the  presents  ready.  We 
had  the  tree  in  one  corner  of  our  room. 
The  children  and  young  people  were  de- 
lighted when  they  saw  it.  While  we  were 
putting  presents,  apples,  oranges,  etc.,  on 
the  tree  an  accident  happened.  We  had  a 
lantern  hung  up  so  that  the  light  from  it 
reflected  on  the  tree,  so  as  to  see  the  tree 
to  good  advantage.  Mrs.  Clay  was  on  the 
floor  and  had  charge  of  presents  in  a  bas- 
ket, while  I  was  standing  on  a  chair  ar- 
ranging the  presents  on  the  tree.  Among 
the  presents  was  a  large  candy  heart  that 
a  young  man  had  brought  to  have  put  on 
the  tree  for  his  best  girl.  I  dropped  an 
orange,  it  fell  in  the  basket,  struck  the  fel- 
low's big  heart,  and  broke  it  in  many 
pieces.  This  caused  Cliff  to  become  ex- 
cited, and  he  threw  back  his  head,  struck 
the  lantern,  and  knocked  it  down.  It  fell 
78 


near  Mrs.  Clay  and  scared  her  awfully. 
She  raised  up,  jumped  over  the  cradle,  ran 
behind  the  bed  and  sat  down  to  wait  for 
an  explosion,  but  the  explosion  did  not  take 
place.  We  had  nothing  more  serious  than 
breaking  the  fellow's  heart. 

Now,  dear  children  I  have  since  learned 
that  Christmas  means  Christ-born,  and 
that  the  25th  day  of  December  is  cele- 
brated as  Christ's  birthday.  Oh,  how 
pleasant  it  is  to  think  that  Christ  who  died 
for  you  was  once  a  little  child.  Dear 
children,  parents,  and  all,  when  you  give 
gifts  at  Christmas  remember  that  God  so 
loved  you  as  to  give  His  son  to  die  for  your 
sins.  Now  cannot  you  give  yourself  to 
him  as  a  Christmas  gift  this  year?  If  you 
do  so  you  will  spend  the  happiest  Christ- 
mas of  your  life.  I  have  spent  44,  and 
have  spent  them  in  various  ways,  but  none 
so  happy  as  when  spent  in  the  service  of 
my  blessed  Lord.  May  the  good  Lord 
help  you  to  try  it  this  year,  dear  reader. 

Well,  dear  friends,  I  hope  you  all  have 
had  a  pleasant  Christmas,  and  that  many 
of  you  have  said.  Lord,  I  give  myself 
to  thee.  Since  I  gave  myself  to  God 
He  has  been  so  extremely  good  to  me 
and  mine  that  it  seems  to  me  I  can  never 

79 


do  enough  for  His  cause.  I  attended  to 
my  Sunday  school,  and  quarterly  Confer- 
ence elected  me  steward,  and  I  was  doing 
the  best  I  could  for  the  preachers  and  the 
Methodist  church  generally.  About  this 
time  there  was  a  very  poor  family  moved 
into  the  little  cabin  near  our  house,  and  as 
we  had  no  Sunday  school  in  the  winter  I 
said  to  Mrs.  Clay  one  Sunday  morning, 
''Let  us  go  and  see  this  poor  family."  She 
of  course  agreed  at  once,  and  in  company 
with  a  few  friends,  among  whom  was  Mrs. 
Ellen  E.,  a  very  sweet  singer,  we  went— 
about  eight  in  number.  They  seemed 
very  glad  to  see  us  and  I  was  very  much 
impressed  with  the  family.  They  seemed 
to  be  very  good  people.  I  proposed  read- 
ing God's  word,  singing  a  hymn  and  hav- 
ing prayers  with  them,  to  which  they 
readily  assented.  I  read  from  Matt.  19, 
beginning  at  the  16th  verse.  I  made  a 
plain,  simple  talk  on  the  life  of  the  young 
man  mentioned  in  this  chapter,  and  wound 
up  by  saying  that  he  was  like  a  great 
many  young  men  today  that  want  to  do 
some  great  thing,  that  is  something  that 
the  world  calls  great,  and  then  if  they  are 
called  upon  to  do  something  for  the  relief 
of  the  poor,  some  little  act  of  kindness, 
80 


and  preached  ten  of  his  very  best  sermons 
for  us.  We  had  about  fifty  conversions 
and  twenty-three  accessions  to  the  church. 
Bro.  T.  is  a  good  preacher  and  one  of  the 
greatest  men  in  prayer  I  have  ever  heard 
pray.  His  worth  to  the  conference  has 
not,  nor  never  will  be,  realized  this  side  of 
heaven.  May  his  reward  be  great  in  the 
end  is  my  prayer.  Our  people  at  Chestnut 
Hill  all  fell  in  love  with  him  at  first  sight. 
The  crowds  that  came  to  hear  him  preach 
were  immense;  our  large  church  would  not 
hold  near  all  of  them.  Our  people  here 
will  be  glad  to  have  him  for  their  pastor  at 
any  time.  The  church  is  now  completed 
with  the  exception  of  a  bell,  and  when  a 
sixty  dollar  bell  is  put  in,  the  church,  with 
all  its  furniture,  seats,  stoves,  bell  and  all 
will  cost  less  than  sixteen  hundred  dollars. 
The  membership  of  this  church  is  about 
160,  and  the  Sunday  school  numbers  about 
225. 

On  the  24th  day  of  Novembr,  1894,  we 
celebrated  the  25th  anniversary  of  our  wed- 
ding day.  All  our  children  and  grand- 
children and  special  friends  took  supper 
with  us.  After  supper  quite  a  number  of 
young  people  came  in  and  entertained  us 
with  good  music  for  an  hour.     God  grant 

129 


that  every  one  of  this  little  company,  with 
hosts  of  other  friends  may  join  us  at  the 
marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb.  I  closed  up 
my  work  for  the  year  '93  with  a  debt  of 
about  $700  on  the  church  for  which  I  was 
personally  responsible,  but  had  it  in  a  shape 
to  be  paid  out  in  1904.  I  went  to  Confer- 
ence in  1893,  at  Charlotte,  not  knowing 
whether  I  would  be  returned  to  Chestnut 
Hill  charge  or  not.  The  people  of  Chest- 
nut Hill  had  asked  for  me  and  my  Presid- 
ing Elder  told  them  he  would  send  me  back 
if  he  could,  and  he  thought  it  probable  as 
it  had  been  a  work  only  three  years.  I  was 
willing  to  go  back  there  or  to  go  anywhere 
else.  But  as  I  had  refused  to  join  confer- 
ence and  had  completed  the  work  at  Salis- 
bury, the  conference  had  nothing  more  for 
me  to  do.  So  I  went  home  disappointed 
and  sick,  still  being  responsible  for  the 
church  debt.  But  that  was  all  arranged 
when  our  new  Presiding  Elder  came.  I 
got  a  clear  receipt  and  thus  closes  the  work 
of  Clifton  Clay  as  a  pastor  in  Rowan  coun- 
ty, N.  C. 

I  said  I  would  refer  to  my  associates 
again.  Jake  C.  and  Lock  S.  are  both  farm- 
ing and  doing  well.     Jake  S.  was  killed  by 
a  drunk  man,  the  killing  was  thought  to 
13a 


be  accidental.  Mose  B.,  a  cousin  of  mine, 
went  to  making  whiskey  and  brandy  and 
is  a  great  sinner.  David  L.  is  gone  and  I 
know  nothing  of  him.  Dan  C,  another 
one  of  my  cousins  (the  one  that  was  with 
me  when  the  preacher  talked  to  us  and  we 
had  our  coat  tails  in  our  pants),  went  to 
Georgia.  He  wrote  me  that  he  was  con- 
verted, and  had  joined  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South.  The  last  I  heard  from  him  was 
that  he  was  preaching  the  gospel  of  the 
Son  of  God.  I  hope  this  is  true.  This 
closes  the  life  of  Clifton  Clay  in  Rowan 
County,  for  the  present,  at  least,  and  may 
be  forever.     God  bless  you  all. 

chapter  xxiii. 

Cliff  Leaves  His  Native  County. 

As  my  work  was  now  done  in  Rowan 
County  as  a  pastor,  and  I  could  not  get 
employment  at  anything  else,  I  thought 
best  to  sell  my  house  and  lot  at  Salisbury, 
and  strike  for  a  job  somewhere  else.  I  felt 
at  this  time  that  the  Methodist  church  had 
not  treated  me  fairly— giving  me  no  work 
at  all.  Right  here  I  had  battle  with  the 
devil;  he  actually  tried  to  persuade  me  to 
leave  the  Methodist  church.     He  came  at 

131 


me  in  this  way:  ''As  much  as  you  have 
done  for  the  Methodist  church,  working 
hard  as  a  preacher,  and  also  as  a  con- 
tractor, and  now  they  have  left  you  with- 
out work,  and  without  your  pay  as  a  con- 
tractor. If  I  were  in  your  place  I  would  go 
to  the  Presbyterians;  they  have  been  good 
and  kind  to  you,  and  have  helped  you  in 
your  work.  Now,  you  go  to  them,  they 
will  help  you  in  this  time  of  trouble.'' 

I  had  been  very  sick  and  was  still  weak 
in  body  and  mind,  and  was  very  easily 
fretted,  and  said  and  did  some  things 
about  that  time  that  I  am  very  sorr^  for, 
and  I  hope  all  who  are  concerned  in  the 
matter  will  forgive  me.  Now,  I  dearly 
loved  the  Presbyterians,  God  bless  them! 
but  when  I  got  well  and  came  to  myself 
and  began  to  think  what  the  Methodist 
church  was,  and  what  she  had  done  for  me 
and  mine,  that  she  had  taken  me  in  out  of 
the  cold  world,  and  that  it  was  at  her 
altars  that  God  spoke  peace  to  my  soul,  at 
her  altars  all  of  my  precious  children  were 
converted  and  took  upon  themselves  the 
vows  of  the  church;  and  my  dear  Mary, 
who  has  been  so  true  to  me  through  all 
these  years  of  trial,  was  born  and  reared 
in  the  Methodist  church;  and  last,  but  not 

132 


least,  my  mother  was  converted  at  its 
altars  at  an  old  age.  And  I  do  thank  God 
to-day  for  all  the  blessings  that  have  come 
to  me  and  mine  through  this  grand  old 
church.  And  I  told  the  old  deceiver  that 
whether  the  authorities  of  the  Methodist 
church  gave  me  work  in  Conference  or  not 
I  expected  to  live  and  die  right  by  her 
altars,  and  he  has  let  me  alone  on  that 
subject  ever  since. 

In  January,  1894,  I  advertised  my  house 
and  lot  for  sale,  but  received  no  bids. 
About  this  time  a  good  brother  sent  me 
word  that  he  v/oul  d  swap  me  a  good  plan- 
tation in  Montgomery  county  for  my  house 
and  lot.  Some  of  my  children  were 
anxious  for  me  to  make  the  trade,  but  I 
could  not  see  out  that  way.  I  wanted  to 
sell  my  property  for  the  money,  but  as  I 
could  not  I  told  my  wife  and  children  that 
I  would  pray  over  this  offer  one  week,  and 
if  I  had  no  other  offer  till  the  end  of  the 
week— if  they  were  willing  to  it  I  would 
accept  it  as  God's  plan,  and  make  the 
trade  whether  I  could  see  my  way  out  or 
not. 

Well,  I  waited  patiently  till  the  end  of 
the  week  and  had  no  other  offer,  so  I  told 
my  family  that  the  trade  was  made,    and 

133 


that  the  Lord  had  made  it,  and  I  was  satis- 
fied that  it  was  a  good  one.  In  a  few  days 
the  brother  and  I  went  and  fixed  up  the 
papers,  and  then  I  saw  the  place,  and 
found  it  much  better  than  I  expected. 
Reader,  if  you  want  a  good  bargain  let  the 
Lord  make  the  trade  for  you  every  time. 

It  was  hard  for  us  to  leave  our  comfort- 
able home  and  many  kind  friends  at  Salis- 
bury, to  cast  our  lot  among  strangers  in  a 
strange  land;  but  it  was  especially  hard  to 
say  good-bye  to  three  of  our  precious  chil- 
dren, whose  homes  are  at  Salisbury.  But 
I  felt  assured  that  this  was  God's  plan, 
and  that  he  would  lead  me  aright. 

On  the  12th  of  February,  1894,  my 
youngest  son  and  myself  left  the  town  of 
Salisbury,  and  reached  our  pine-pole  cabin 
in  Montgomery  county  on  the  13th,  and  on 
the  16th,  we  were  joined  by  Mrs.  Clay  and 
the  two  little  girls. 

Dear  reader,  I  shall  not  attempt  to 
describe  our  surroundings;  I  will  just  leave 
you  to  imagine  how  you  would  feel  to  move 
out  of  a  good  ceiled  house  with  nine  rooms 
into  one  of  two  that  was  neither  weather- 
boarded,  ceiled,  chinked,  nor  daubed. 
With  all  this,  my  wife  was  sick— had  not 
been  up  all  day  for  ten  days — when  she 

134 


took  the  train  for  this  place.  The  trip  did 
not  seem  to  hurt  her,  and  although  we 
were  not  very  comfortable  we  were  happy, 
for  we  felt  sure  the  Lord  had  sent  us  here; 
and  the  best  of  all  was,  we  felt  that  He 
was  here  with  us. 

Dear  readers,  it  is  not  what  we  have, 
nor  where  we  are,  but  it  is  what  we  are 
that  makes  us  happy. 

chapter  xxiv. 
The  Lord  Will  Provide. 

Dear  readers,  I  have  moved  many  times. 
Moved  three  times  in  one  year,  but  this 
was  the  toughest  place  we  ever  struck. 
We  had  a  little  flour,  one  piece  of  meat, 
six  pounds  of  lard  and  one  dollar  and 
thirty  cents  in  money  left,  when  we  paid 
our  freight  and  dray  bills.  Now  we  had 
come  to  this  place  to  farm.  The  Lord  had 
given  us  this  farm  and  we  wanted  to  work 
it.  Here  w^e  were,  five  of  us  to  feed,  and 
I  have  told  you  what  we  had  to  go  on. 
This  farm  contains  one  hundred  and  nine 
acres  of  good  land,  with  a  river  running 
through  it.  It  has  twelve  acres  of  good 
bottom  on  it,  of  which  ten  acres  are  in 
cultivation.      We  had  no  horse,  no  cow, 

135 


dog,  cat  nor  chickens.  We  had  neither 
wagon,  plow,  harness,  corn,  nor  anything 
of  the  kind,  and  no  money  to  buy  it  with. 
And  not  one  person  did  we  know  in  the 
county  when  we  came  here,  but  as  I  have 
already  said,  we  were  contented  and  happy, 
feeling  sure  that  the  Lord  had  sent  us  here 
and  in  some  way  or  other  would  provide 
for  us,  and  He  did.  This  year  has  been 
marked  with  more  special  providences  of 
God  than  any  one  year  of  my  life.  God 
has  seemed  nearer  to  me  in  this  lonely 
place  than  any  where  I  have  ever  lived. 
The  first  few  Sundays  we  spent  here  seem- 
ed very  dreary  to  me,  my  mind  naturally 
went  back  to  Chestnut;Hill  church  that  the 
Lord  had  enabled  me  to  build,  and  in  my 
imagination  I  could  see  the  many  smiling 
faces  that  had  greeted  me  every  Sunday 
morning  for  three  years.  But  with  Sun- 
day night  came  the  trying  time  to  me. 
There  are  no  words  in  any  language  that 
can  express  what  I  felt.  I  could  not  help 
listening  for  the  bell,  away  back  at  Chest- 
nut Hill,  that  had  called  me  twice  every 
Sabbath  for  three  years,  to  go  and  deliver 
a  message  for  my  blessed  Master.  It  seem- 
ed to  me  as  if  my  heart  would  break.  Oh ! 
how  I  loved  that  church  and  those  dear 
*  136 


people,  no  one  but  a  pastor  can  tell.  But 
I  loved  my  blessed  Savior  more  than  all 
things  else  and  he  came  right  close  to  me 
in  this  hour  of  trial  and  said,  son  this  is 
for  your  good.  At  this  point  I  made  a 
full  surrender,  I  freely  gave  up  all  for 
Jesus. 

We  have  a  good  church  building  near  us 
here,  and  a  few,  very  few  gathered  there 
every  Sunday  morning  and  had  Sunday 
school.  We  have  preaching  but  once  a 
month,  and  very  few  people  attend  then. 
The  people  here,  as  a  rule,  seem  to  take 
but  very  little  interest  in  church  work. 
Soon  after  we  moved  here  a  woman  sent 
me  word  that  she  wanted  me  do  some 
work.  I  went  to  see  her  at  once.  She 
wanted  a  dwelling  house  and  a  mill  house 
built.  She  said,  I  am  going  to  have  a  new 
mill  put  in  and  I  want  you  to  run  it  when 
it  is  completed.  My  son  and  myself  went 
to  work  at  once  on  the  dwelling  house,  and 
this  kind  woman  let  us  have  corn  and 
wheat  and  some  money.  As  I  have  already 
said  the  Unharrie  River  runs  through  my 
plantation  and  I  have  a  good  fishery  on  the 
river.  In  March  we  began  to  catch  fish 
and  soon  caught  more  than  we  could  use. 
We  sold  the    surplus    for  a  good  price, 

137 


which  was  a  great  help  to  us.  We  caught 
about  six  hundred  during  the  spring  and 
summer,  some  of  them  very  fine  ones.  I 
took  four  out  of  one  of  my  traps  at  one 
time  that  weighed  thirty-one  and  a  half 
pounds.  The  Lord  was  so  good  to  us, 
bless  His  holy  name.  We  soon  gained  many 
friends  in  this  county.  One  good  old  Bro. 
knew  that  I  wanted  a  horse,  and  he  also 
knew  that  I  did  not  have  the  money  to  buy 
one.  He  said  to  me,  I  have  a  horse  at  my 
house  that  will  be  sold  at  the  court  house 
door,  whatever  he  brings  is  coming  to  me, 
and  if  you  want  him,  go  and  bid  him  off, 
whether  you  have  any  money  or  not.  So  I 
thanked  the  Lord  and  this  good  Bro.  and 
went  and  bid  the  horse  off  for  twenty-five- 
dollars  and  seventy-five  cents.  My  son 
raised  a  good  crop  with  him  and  he  is  bet 
ter  now  than  when  I  bought  him.  Another 
Bro.  brought  us  a  cow  and  we  had  the  use 
of  her  all  summer  for  fifty  cents  a  month. 
Another  Bro.  brought  us  a  hog  and  put  it 
in  the  pen,  and  told  me  to  pay  for  it  when-' 
ever  it  suited  me.  Quite  a  number  of  our 
new  friends  gave  us  chickens,  molasses, 
potatoes,  etc.  Mrs.  Clay  and  I  went  to 
visit  a  family  one  day  and  when  we  were 
getting  ready  to  start  home  the  good  man 

138 


of  the  house  caught  a  nice  pig  and  gave  it 
to  Mrs.  Clay.     She  was  very  proud  of  her 
little  black  pig  and  has  taken  good  care  of 
it,  and  it  is  now  a  nice  little  hog.    As  for 
cats  and  dogs  we  had  to  use  powder  and 
lead  to  thin  them  out.     This  county  seems 
to  have  an  overplus  of   cats    and    dogs. 
While  my  son  was  working  our  crop,    my 
sons-in-law,  Mr.  Kluttz  and  Mr.  Watson, 
of  Salisbury  came  and  helped  me  on  the 
house  that  I  was  building.     I  did  but  little 
work  on  the  mill  house.     I  was  taken  sick 
with  diptheria  in  June  and    came    near 
dying.     While  I  was  sick  we  run  out  of 
money  and  rations.    A  man  in  the  com- 
munity owed  me  a  few  dollars  and  on 
hearing  of  my  sickness  sent  it  to  me.  Now 
before  I  was  taken  sick  I  had  subscribed 
to  our  pastor's  salary,  and  also  had  sub- 
scribed   three  dollars  missionary  money. 
While  I  was  sick  our  quarterly  conference 
came  on.     I  told  Mrs.    Clay    we    would 
divide  with  the  preacher.     As  I  had  been  a 
pastor  myself  I  knew  how  important  it 
was  that  the  money  be  raised.     We  now 
had  but  little  money  left  to  buy  us  some 
bread  and  medicine.     I  was  now  at  my 
worst  with  my  throat.     Just  at  this  time 
there  came  a  note  from  a  man  in  the  com- 


139 


munity  who  I  was  owing  a  few  dollars, 
saying  he  must  have  some  money.  I  told 
my  wife  to  go  and  get  my  pocket  book, 
and  send  him  what  we  had  and  she  did  so, 
not  knowing  where  money  or  rations  were 
to  come  from,  but  we  felt  sure  that  the 
Lord  in  His  own  time  and  way  would  pro- 
vide for  us  if  we  trusted  in  Him.  At  one 
time  during  the  summer  we  had  neither 
meat,  meal,  nor  flour  but  Mrs.  Clay  said, 
thank  the  Lord  we  have  some  shorts  to 
make  bread,  and  we  will  not  starve.  The 
good  people  at  several  of  the  churches  on 
this  work  had  invited  me  to  preach  for 
them  saying  they  would  pay  me  for  my 
services.  But  now  I  could  neither  work 
nor  preach.  But  by  and  by  my  throat  got 
well,  and  I  preached  some  at  Ophir,  Mac- 
edonia, Zoar  and  Prospect,  in  this  county 
and  at  Stoney  Hill  and  Dicksville  school 
house  in  Stanley  County.  At  all  of  these 
places  I  administered  to  the  people  as  best 
I  could  in  spiritual  things,  and  at  every 
one  of  these  places  the  good  people  admin- 
istered to  me  in  temporal  things.  May 
God  bless  every  one  of  them.  By  this  time 
we  had  plenty  of  beans  and  potatoes  and 
salad  and  some  flour,  but  no  meat.  But 
just  at  this  time  a  kind  sister  of  Macedonia 

140 


church  gave  us  a  nice  fat  piece  of  bacon, 
and  then  we  were  all  right  for  a  while.  I 
now  thought  I  was  well  enough  to  go  to 
work  at  the  mill  again  and  could  make 
some  money,  and  we  would  soon  get  the 
mill  to  running,  and  then  we  would  have 
plenty  of  bread  at  least.  But,  alas  for 
human  hopes,  when  I  went  to  the  mill  to 
go  to  work,  the  boss  workman  told  me  he 
had  nothing  for  me  to  do.  And  at  the 
same  time  I  found  out  that  the  owner  of 
this  mill  had  contracted  with  another  man 
to  run  her  mill,  saying  she  was  afraid  I 
would  not  be  able  to  run  it.  My  friends, 
this  was  a  stunner— turned  out  in  the  cold 
again  without  a  dollar— and  by  this  time 
meat,  bread,  horse  and  cow  feed  were  all 
out.  It  seemed  to  me  that  this  was  more 
than  I  could  bear,  and  indeed  I  broke  clear 
down  and  cried  like  a  whipped  child.  I 
felt  as  if  everybody  had  gone  back  on  me, 
but  when  I  came  to  myself  I  found  Mary 
my  dear  companion,  who  has  stood  right 
by  my  side  for  more  than  twenty-five 
years  still  standing  there,  and  with  her 
soft  hand  she  wiped  away  my  tears,  say- 
ing, the  Lord  has  not  gone  back  on  you. 
I  said,  0,  it  is  so  dark,  so  dark,  so  dark.  She 
said,  yes,  it  is  dark  now,  but  this  is  for  our 

141 


good,    and  the  Lord  will  provide.     So  I 
thanked  the  Lord  and  took  courage. 

chapter  xxv. 

The  Lord  Did  Provide. 

A  good  brother  let  me  have  an  old  car- 
riage, out  of  which  I  made  a  wagon  for 
myself.  I  took  the  wagon  and  went  to  a 
brother  who  had  meat  to  sell.  He  gave 
me  the  privilege  of  hauling  off  some  meat 
to  sell.  I  got  one  cent  more  on  the  pound 
than  I  paid,  and  thus  gained  enough  to  get 
us  a  small  ham,  to  the  great  delight  of 
Mrs.  Clay  and  the  children.  But  their  joy 
was  soon  turned  into  sorrow.  We  had 
used  but  a  small  portion  of  it,  when  some 
sneak  thief  went  into  the  kitchin  and  stole 
it.  This  was  very  hard  on  Mrs.  Clay's 
religion,  for  she  is  particularly  fond  of 
ham.  Now  came  my  time  to  console.  I 
told  Mrs.  Clay  and  the  mortified  children 
that  I  was  very  sorry  for  them  (I  care 
nothing  for  ham  myself),  and  for  them 
not  to  worry  about  it;  that  the  Lord  would 
provide,  but  neither  they  or  I  could  see 
another  ham  in  the  provision.  But  a  kind 
friend,  who  had  bought  three  hams  of  me, 
when  he  heard  of  our  loss  gave  Mrs.  Clay 

142 


a  ham  in  place  of  the  stolen  one.  And 
when  the  good  old  brother  from  whom  I 
got  the  meat  heard  of  our  calamity  he  gave 
me  a  dollar,  so  you  see  the  Lord  did 
provide. 

Now,  dear  reader,  I  shall  soon  close  this 
little  book.  In  it  I  have  strived  to  tell  you 
something  of  God's  goodness  to  me  and 
mine.  And  I  will  say  right  here  that  we 
raised  a  good  crop  of  potatoes  and  have 
killed  a  nice  fat  hog  and  have  plenty  to 
eat.  So  you  see  the  more  I  tell  the  more 
I  have  to  tell.  Many  will  read  these  lines 
that  will  never  see  me  in  this  world,  but  I 
hope,  trust,  and  pray  that  this  little  volume 
may  be  the  instrument  in  God's  hand  of 
leading  some  poor  erring  souls  into  the 
light  and  liberty  of  God's  children. 

As  I  have  already  said,  we  have  plenty 
to  eat,  but  no  money  to  get  clothes  or  any- 
thing else  with.  But  as  you  have  already 
seen,  and  will  see  as  I  proceed,  the  Lord 
always  provides  for  us  just  at  the  right 
time. 

As  the  year  1894  was  drawing  to  a  close 
two  things  troubled  me.  One  was,  What 
shall  I  do  next  year,  and  the  other  was, 
where  am  I  to  get  the  money  to  meet  my 
obligations.    I  wanted  to  work  in  the  Con- 

143 


ference  if  I  could  get  it;  if  not,  I  wanted 
to  sell  my  plantation,  pay  my  debts,  and 
have  this  little  book  printed.  I  could  not 
sell  my  place,  and  could  not  pay  my  mis- 
sionary money,  and  the  time  was  almost 
here  for  me  to  go  to  Conference  to  be 
ordained  Elder,  and  I  had  no  money  in 
which  to  go.  So  I  told  my  wife  I  could  not 
go  to  Conference,  but  she  said,  ''You  must 
go!"  and  with  that  same  unshaken  trust 
she  said,  ''You  will  go:  the  Lord  will  in 
some  way  provide  for  it.'\  I  said  no  more. 
Now,  dear  reader,  I  am  going  to  relate 
one  of  the  most  wonderful  manifestations 
of  God's  goodness  that  has  ever  come  to 
us.  I  had  told  my  wife  some  time  before 
this  that  if  the  Lord  did  not  send  fish  into 
our  traps  to  pay  our  missionary  money  I 
^ould  not  see  where  it  was  to  come  from. 
"Well,''  said  she,  "let  us  hope  and  pray 
for  the  fish."  Well,  sure  enough  they  soon 
began  to  come.  One  morning  I  got  five, 
the  next  morning  nine,  the  next  nineteen, 
the  next  twenty-seven,  and  the  next  forty. 
By  this  time  I  had  one-half  of  my  money. 
Just  at  this  time  I  had  to  make  a  trip  to 
the  town  of  Albemarle.  The  night  before 
I  was  to  start  my  wife  said  to  me,  "I  wish 
the  Lord  would  send  you  150  fish  to-night. " 

144 


they  turn  away  sorrowful  or  mad.  I  then 
turned  to  the  two  old  people,  the  father 
and  mother  of  the  family,  and  to  the  best 
of  my  ability  told  them  of  the  precious  Son 
of  God,  who  was  rich,  yet  for  our  sakes 
He  became  poor;  that  He  had  not  where 
to  lay  His  head;  and  that  He  was  the  friend 
of  the  poor  and  loved  to  dwell  with  them 
and  bless  them  if  they  would  serve  Him. 
We  had  a  prayer  and  Mrs.  E.  led  us  in 
singing.  She  sang  some  of  the  most  soul- 
inspiring  songs  I  have  ever  heard.  The 
Spirit  came  down.  The  old  man  and  his 
wife  got  happy  and  clapped  their  hands 
and  shouted  aloud  the  praises  of  God. 
After  the  service  the  old  man  came  to  me 
and  laid  his  hand  on  my  shoulder  and  said 
to  me,  I  am  so  glad  that  the  Lord  sent  you 
here  this  day.  Oh,  I  am  so  happy;  bless 
the  Lord.  He  then  said,  I  tell  you  right 
now,  young  man,  that  you  will  have  the 
gospel  horn  to  blow  before  you  die.  These 
words  came  like  a  clap  of  thunder  from 
the  clear  sky.  I  was  almost  speechless. 
It  seemed  as  if  God  himself  had  spoken  to 
me.  We  bade  the  family  good-bye  and  I 
left  with  these  burning  words  still  ringing 
in  my  ears :  '  'You  will  have  the  gospel  horn 
to  blow."    On  our  way  home  Mrs.   Clay 

81 


asked  me  when  I  was  licensed  to  preach. 
I  told  her  I  had  no  license.  She  said, 
well  I  think  you  had  better  hold  up  then. 
I  felt  that  I  would  like  to  be  a  good 
preacher  and  be  able  to  tell  the  sweet  story 
of  the  cross  to  dying  men.  After  this  I 
visited  this  poor  family  often,  and  always 
left  them  feeling  that  it  was  good  to  be 
there. 

Time  rolled  on,  and  another  boy  was 
born  to  us.  We  named  him  Will.  He 
was  only  lent  to  us  a  very  short  time.  His 
short  life  was  one  of  intense  suffering. 
We  had  five  doctors  with  him,  but  they 
could  do  nothing  for  him.  He  had  an  open 
heart  and  that  rendered  his  case  hopeless. 
For  sometime  before  he  died  his  little 
fingers,  toes  and  lips  were  blue  as  indigo. 
At  the  age  of  eight  and  a  half  months 
Jesus  took  him  from  a  world  of  pain  to 
one  of  rest  and  peace.  All  this  time  Mrs. 
Clay  had  no  rest  night  or  day.  No  one 
but  a  mother  can  have  any  idea  of  the 
anxiety  and  sore  trouble  that  Mrs.  Clay 
passed  through  all  these  weary  days  and 
nights.  Her  health  had  been  bad  for 
some  time  and  this  trouble  completely 
prostrated  her.  She  was  now  afflicted 
with  serious  heart  trouble.      Her  doctor 

82 


said  to  me  one  day,  you  need  not  be  at  all 
surprised  to  find  your  wife  dead  in  bed 
any  morning.  But  I  plead  with  my  hea- 
venly Father  to  spare  her  to  me,  and  thank 
God,  she  is  still  spared  to  me.  The  sound, 
'  you  will  have  the  gospel  horn  to  blow, ' ' 
still  kept  ringing  in  my  ears.  But  I  had 
no  education,  and  was  a  poor  man  with 
a  family,  and  I  thought  it  was  impossible 
for  me  ever  to  preach,  but  still  I  could  not 
get  rid  of  the  impression.  I  talked  to 
Mrs.  Clay  about  my  trouble.  She  said  if 
the  Lord  wants  you  to  preach  he  will  open 
the  way  for  you.  I  told  my  pastor,  R. 
N.  T.  Stevenson,  how  I  was  troubled.  He 
advised  me  to  take  out  license  to  exort, 
which  I  did,  and  this  relieved  me  for  a 
short  time.  I  had  a  large  custom,  and 
my  young  man  Van  P.  was  still  with  me. 
He  was  a  good  fellow.  We  worked 
together  through  the  week,  held  prayer 
meetings  at  night  and  often  on  Sunday  in 
the  winter  time,  when  we  had  no  Sunday 
school.  But  with  all  I  could  do,  the  **gos- 
pel  horn"  impression  was  there.  About 
this  time  Bro.  Creasy  was  sent  to  our  cir- 
cuit. I  told  him  about  my  impression  and 
he  said,  brother,  you  had  better  take  up 
the  horn."  I  loved  my  trade,  but  the  Lord 


afflicted  me  so  I  was  compelled  to  give  up 
the  furnace  and  hire  a  blacksmith.  My 
eyes  were  so  affected  that  I  could  not  bear 
the  fire.  I  suffered  with  them  day  and 
night.  The  doctors  told  me  I  was  com- 
pelled to  give  up  my  trade  or  my  eyes.  I 
had  already  seen  that  I  could  not  afford  to 
hire  a  smith,  as  it  took  just  about  all  my 
profit.  Now  these  were  trying  times  to 
me  but  the  Lord  brought  me  out.  Bless 
His  Holy  name. 

chapter  xv. 

Sells  His  Home. 

We  had  a  pleasant  home,  and  we  were 
very  much  attached  to  it,  but  my  impres- 
sions were  that  the  time  had  come  for  us  to 
give  it  up.  My  eyes  were  some  better,  but 
I  was  afraid  to  go  back  to  the  furnace,  and 
I  could  not  afford,  to  keep  a  blacksmith,  as 
so  many  buggies  and  wagons  were  shipped 
to  this  State  from  the  West,  and  reduced 
the  price  of  home  work.  So  that  under  the 
circumstances  I  could  not  make  a  living,  as 
our  family  was  still  increasing.  We  now 
had  another  little  girl.  We  called  her 
Mary. 

84 


Now,  Mrs.  Clay's  mother  was  sick,  and 
in  a  few  weeks  died.  After  her  burial 
Mrs.  Clay  said,  *'Now  I  am  ready  to  go 
with  you  anywhere. ' ' 

Mrs.  Clay  had  truly  lost  a  mother.     Her 
mother  was  one  of  the  right  type.     I  didn't 
know  her  worth  and  how  much  I  did  love 
her  until  she  was  gone.     I  was  with  her  in 
her  last  days  and  hours  of   sickness,  and 
she  was  truly  resigned  to  the  will  of  the 
blessed  Lord,  and  was  patiently  waiting  for 
Him  to  come  and  meet  her  at  the  shore. 
I  was  at  home  one  day  at  dinner,  and  Mrs. 
Clay  came  in.  I  inquired  about  her  mother, 
and  she  said  she  was  worse.     I  went  back 
with  her  to  her  mother's  bedside.    As  soon 
as  I  entered  the  room  she  looked  me  in  the 
face  and  said,  * 'There  comes  Cliff .   He  will 
help  me  across;"  and  I  stayed  by  her  side 
with  her  husband,  children  and  friends  until 
she  peacefully  passed  away.  Our  little  home 
had  cost  us  $335.     I  thought  it  was  the  best 
thing  I  could  do  to  sell  it  and  go  to  a  farm. 
So  I  took  it  to  the  Lord  in  prayer,    and 
asked  Him  if  it  was  the  best  for  me  to  give 
up  my  shop  and  leave  this  place  (I  only  had 
5i  acres  of  land,  and  it  out  in  the  country) 
to  send  a  buyer  with  the  money.     So  in  a 
few  days  a  man  came  and  said,  '1  hear  you 

85 


are  talking  of  leaving.  Now  I  don't  want 
want  you  to  leave,  but  if  you  are  deter- 
mined to  go  I  will  give  you  $150  in  cash  for 
your  house  and  lot/'  I  saw  if  I  took  it,  it 
would  be  a  sacrifice  of  $185,  but  I  was 
offered  no  more  by  anyone  else,  and  I  be- 
lieved the  Lord  had  sent  that  man  in 
answer  to  prayer  and  we  made  him  a  deed 
and  got  the  money. 

My  mother  came  to  see  me  about  this 
time,  and  learning  what  I  had  done,  said  I 
could  get  a  place  close  to  her ;  and  father 
stated  that  there  were  21h  acres  of  land 
under  mortgage  adjoining  our  place  and 
would  be  sold  soon.  I  went  and  bought 
that  for  $123.50,  so  I  had  214  acres  of  land 
and  $26.50  of  my  money  left.  I  was  dis- 
appointed in  the  house  mother  spoke  to  me 
about,  but  I  rented  a  parsonage  on  a  plan- 
tation that  belonged  to  the  Reformed 
Church,  and  moved  there  January  29,  1881. 
No  one  had  lived  there  for  some  time,  and 
the  rooms  were  cold  when  we  moved,  and 
little  Mary  was  sick  indeed.  It  came  my 
time  to  watch  over  her  in  the  after  part  of 
the  night,  and  as  I  sat  watching  alone 
through  the  long  lonely  hours  of  the  night 
I  was  thinking  of  the  past ;  what  a  nice, 
comfortable  home  we  had  left ;   and  the 

86 


strong  tie  that  had  bound  A.  Van  P.  and 
myself  together  was  severed,  and  the  pres- 
ence and  help  of  Mrs.  Van  P.  to  Mrs.  Clay- 
in  sickness  was  no  more,  and  Mrs.  Clay 
away  from  her  father  and  sister  that  we 
had  long  lived  by  the  side  of,  was  no 
longer  in  calling  distance. 

Thinking  of  all  these  and  many  others, 
and  what  a  great  change  had  been  made  in 
such  a  short  time,  at  this  moment  the  devil 
made  his  appearance  and  wanted  to  make  a 
speech.  So  as  I  ''was  in  a  strait,"  and 
things  seemed  dark  and  mysterious,  I  let 
him  take  the  stand  and  he  began  by  say- 
ing: 'Tou  see  how  the  God  in  whom  you 
have  trusted  has  treated  you.  You  know 
you  asked  Him  if  it  was  best  for  you  to 
break  up  shop  and  sell  your  home  for  him 
to  send  you  a  man  with  the  money  to  buy, 
and  you  would  know  that  was  the 
thing  for  you  to  do,  but  you  see 
now  where  you  are.  You  see  you 
are  here  with  an  afflicted  family, 
you  have  neither  bread  nor  meat  for  your 
family,  and  nothing  for  your  stock,  and  but 
little  money.  You  have  no  home,  no  shop 
in  which  to  work,  away  from  your  friends, 
your  wife  away  from  her  father  and  a 
father's  people.  Now  sir,"  continued  the 
87 


devil,  '  'do  you  think  if  you  were  a  child  of 
God  He  would  have  led  you  out  and  treated 
you  thus?  and  do  you  suppose  He  would  call 
on  any  one  to  blow  his  gospel  horn,  and 
then,  treat  them  as  He  has  treated  you? 
Never!  He  has  deceived  you.  No  one  that 
loves  his  children  will  treat  them  as  you 
have  been  treated.''  Now  the  speech  was 
ended  and  I  was  left  to  think  again.  I 
thought  the  old  fellow  had  made  a  pretty 
fair  speech,  and  showed  up  his  side  reas- 
onably well.  I  thought  perhaps  I  might 
have  made  a  mistake  inasmuch  as  I  had  sold 
my  home  at  a  great  sacrifice,  as  I  had  cov- 
eted a  home  so  long.  So  after  a  few  mo- 
ments' study  I  turned  to  the  old  devil,  who 
was  still  hard  by,  and  said:  There  is  a 
way  to  settle  this  matter,  and  I  am  going 
to  do  it.  So  about  four  o'clock  one  morn- 
ing in  the  month  of  February,  1881,  I  went 
and  got  the  Bible,  God's  Word,  and  I 
expected  Him  to  speak  to  me  through  the 
Word  that  morning.  I  felt  that  this  was 
one  of  the  times  that  I  needed  Him  most. 
I  knelt  down  by  the  side  of  my  chair  and 
the  cradle  in  which  lay  the  little  afflicted 
one,  and  said:  Oh,  Heavenly  Father,  in 
this  trying  hour,  manifest  thyself  to  me. 
Father,  I  may  have  done  wrong  in  selling 

88 


my  home,  but  I  believed  that  I  did  as  I  was 
directed  by  Thee;  but  here  is  Thy  Word,  now 
I  take  it  in  my  hands  to  let  it  open  where 
Thou  wilt  direct.  Now,  if  I  have  done 
wrong  in  selling  my  home  and  coming 
here,  direct  me  to  a  text  that  will  condemn 
me  and  I  will  repent  and  retrace  my  steps; 
but  if  I  have  done  right  and  followed  the 
direction  of  thy  Spirit,  direct  me  to  a  text 
that  will  console  me,  and  I  will  never 
doubt  Thee  or  Thy  Word  as  long  as  I  live. 
So  I  let  the  Bible  fall  open,  and  in  this  try- 
ing moment  my  eyes  were  directed  to  the 
5th  verse  of  the  13th  chapter  of  Hebrews. 
Oh,  Hsten!  No  one  but  a  kind,  loving 
Father  can  speak  that  way.  Here  is  the 
message:  "Let  your  conversation  be  with- 
out covetousness:  and  be  content  with  such 
things  as  ye  have;  for  I  will  never  leave 
thee  nor  forsake  thee.''  Now,  dear  reader, 
this  was  more  than  twelve  years  ago,  and 
I  have  gone  through  some  very  dark  places 
(and  am  in  the  midst  of  one  now)  and  the 
God  in  whom  I  trusted  that  night  has  led 
me  out,  and  He  will  lead  me  out  of  this. 
No,  when  men  forsake  and  turn  their  back, 
God  never  forsakes  his  children.  Dear 
reader,  it  pays  to  lay  your  plans  before  the 
Lord.     Try  it. 

89 


chapter  xvi. 

Feels  Called  of  God  to  Preach. 

Well,  little  Mary  got  well,  and  we  were 
all  well  except  Mrs.  Clay.  The  doctor 
attended  her  for  some  time,  and  her  health 
was  much  better  when  spring  opened.  I 
had  built  a  little  blacksmith  shop,  and  had 
put  up  my  wood  tools  in  an  old  house  in  the 
yard  and  was  doing  some  work.  So  when 
planting  time  came  I  needed  help,  and  sent 
for  a  young  man  named  Honeycutt  that  had 
come  to  me  the  year  before  to  learn  his 
trade,  but  had  not  completed  it.  He  came 
and  stayed  with  me  a  short  while,  and  then 
married  and  left.  We  had  everything  to 
buy  in  the  spring  and  nothing  to  buy  with; 
so  when  fall  came  on  our  bills  were  large 
and  as  the  shop  work  had  not  amounted  to 
much,  I  had  but  little  left  after  paying  the 
young  man.  The  crop  year  was  bad,  and 
the  storm  blew  out  the  cotton  and  destroyed 
it,  until  we  could  not  pay  our  bills;  so  Mrs. 
Clay,  who  was  always  ready  and  willing  to 
do  all  she  could,  said,  *  If  I  can  get  some 
cloth  I  will  make  the  children's  clothes  for 
winter,  and  then  I  will  teach  the  school 
they  want  me  to  teach,  and  by  that  means 
90 


can  pay  my  doctor  bill.  So  I  saw  the  mer- 
chant and  stated  the  facts,  and  he  said  he 
would  let  her  have  the  cloth  without  the 
money.  So  I  took  him  a  bale  of  cotton  and 
paid  on  our  bill  as  far  as  it  would  go,  and  I 
still  had  some  more  cotton  at  home,  but 
when  he  got  the  bale  he  says,  "I  can't  let 
your  wife  have  the  cloth  I  promised  you 
the  other  day;  your  bill  is  too  big  now." 
Indeed  it  was  a  sad  message,  and  I  drove 
on  home  thinking,  how  shall  I  deliver  it  to 
my  wife?  She  had  devised  and  planned, 
but,  alas,  all  in  vain!  But  I  remembered 
my  text— Hebrews  13:5.  So  when  I  w^ent 
into  the  house  Mrs.  Clay  said;  '  'Where  is  my 
cloth?"  With  a  sad  heart  I  sat  down  and 
told  her  how  the  merchant  had  treated  us. 
Our  feelings  could  not  be  described,  for  we 
thought  we  had  been  mistreated;  but  we 
knew  if  men  did  turn  their  backs  that  the 
Lord  would  not  forsake  us.  So  we  saw 
what  could  not  be  cured  would  have  to  be 
endured,  and  we  knew  that  the  Lord  would 
provide  in  His  own  way;  and,  though  the 
way  was  dark  at  that  time,  we  were  deter- 
mined to  trust  Him. 

Mrs.  Clay  had  to  give  up  her  school,  the 
only  hope  of  our  getting  a  little  money. 
We   had   no   winter  clothes,    and   had  no 

91 


wheat  or  flour,  but  we  had  a  good  cow,  and 
some  corn  for  bread,  and  we  could  get  a 
little  flour  from  mother  on  Saturdays  to  do 
over  Sunday,  and  have  some  biscuits  on 
Monday  morning  for  Mrs.  Clay  and  the 
children.  But  one  day  when  we  had  cal- 
culated this  way,  our  pastor,  Brother 
Creasy,  stopped  with  us  one  Sunday  for 
dinner,  when  the  Monday  morning  flour 
that  just  made  seven  small  biscuits 
had  to  be  brought  out.  Cliff  always 
enjoyed  corn  bread— or  anything  else— 
when  Brother  C.  was  around,  but  I  ac- 
knowledge that  I  felt  sad  when  the  bis- 
cuits were  gone,  and  nothing  but  corn- 
bread  for  Mrs.  Clay's  breakfast.  But  in  a 
few  days  I  received  a  call  to  go  and  repair 
a  mill,  with  the  understanding  that  I  then 
run  the  mill,  and  pay  myself  out  of  the 
wheat  and  corn  it  made.  The  mill  was  two 
miles  from  home,  but  I  took  my  tools  and 
went  and  repaired  the  mill,  but  the  corn 
mill  first,  and  took  charge  of  them  the  4th 
of  November,  1881.  I  was  then  more 
hopeful  and  cheerful,  and  would  come 
home  singing  or  whistling  at  night.  The 
children  would  watch  for  me,  and  when 
they  heard  me  they  would  come  running 
(I  often  brought  a  little  sack  on  my  shoul- 
92 


der),  and  they  would  say,  *Tapa,  what  is 
in  that  sack?"  And  if  I  said  flour  they 
would  go  running  and  shouting  back  with 
glad  hearts;  but  if  I  said  meal,  they  would 
go  walking  back,  thinking  corn  bread  for 
breakfast.  This  state  of  affairs  did  not 
last  long. 

I  succeeded  with  the  mills  and  got  pay 
for  repair  work  by  the  last  of  December, 
1881,  run  them  until  the  4th  of  March, 
1882-  and  had  plenty  of  wheat-bread  for 
Mrs.  Clay  and  the  children,  and  made  some 
money,  and  Mrs.  Clay  and  the  children  got 
their  clothes  also.  Oh,  dear  reader,  the 
Lord  has  been  so  good  to  me!  Bless  His 
holy  name! 

But  I  had  to  go  back  to  the  farm  that  I 
had  charge  of,  and  the  impression  to '  'blow 
the  gospel  horn' '  was  still  ringing  in  my 
ears.  So  I  talked  to  Brother  T.  W.  Smith, 
who  was  then  my  pastor,  about  it,  and  he 
brought  it  before  the  church,  and  I  was 
recommended  to  the  quarterly  conference, 
held  by  Dr.  W.  S.  Black.  I  there  and  then 
stated  my  case,  told  them  I  was  unedu- 
cated, and  was  not  ready  for  an  examina- 
tion; and  they  decided  as  I  had  hcense  to 
exhort,  and  I  could  preach  with  them,  that 
it  would  be  best  not  to  license  me  to  preach 

93 


at  that  time,  but  advised  me  to  get  the 
necessary  books  and  study,  for  they  be- 
lieved I  would  have  it  to  do.  I  was  well 
pleased  with  the  brethrens'  decision  at  that 
time,  and  for  the  advice  they  gave  me.  I 
felt  very  much  relieved,  and  continued 
holding  prayer  meetings  whenever  an 
opportunity  was  afforded. 

We  remained  on  the  same  farm,  and  on 
the  10th  of  February,  1883,  another  daugh- 
ter was  born  to  us.  We  called  her  Edith. 
She  was  very  sick  the  next  summer,  a  pro- 
tracted spell  of  about  eight  weeks,  and  just 
as  she  was  getting  better  I  cut  my  finger 
with  a  grain  scythe.  About  the  middle  of 
June  I  took  blood  poison  and  came  near 
losing  my  life  .  I  did  nothing  more  in  my 
crop.  Mrs.  Clay  and  the  little  boys  and 
girls  plowed,  and  harrowed  and  hoed,  and 
with  the  help  of  some  kind  friends  took 
care  of  the  wheat,  and  oats,  and  growing 
crop. 

My  health  was  bad  and  I  could  not  stand 
hard  work,  so  I  applied  to  the  American 
Bible  Society  for  work,  and  got  it.  I 
bought  another  horse  and  entered  the  work 
in  January,  1884,  at  a  salary  of  $1.50  a  day. 
This  was  a  grand  work,  but  it  was  very 
trying  to   be  seperated  from  my  family, 

94 


but  I  felt  like  I  could  do  some  good  work 
for  my  blessed  Lord,  that  had  done  so 
much  for  me.  In  this  work  I  had  a  chance 
to  study  God's  Word  and  human  nature  as 
I  had  never  studied  it  before.  I  hired  a 
black  man  the  next  spring,  and  Mrs.  Clay 
superintended  the  farming,  and  they  made 
the  best  crop  that  we  had  made  since  we 
were  here. 

I  had  many  lonely  hours  traveling,  some 
pleasant  ones,  some  sad.  Sometimes  I  had 
trouble  to  get  a  place  to  stay  at  night,  and 
other  times  had  very  pleasant  ^places.  I 
drove  a  little  pony  that  I  loved  dearly,  and 
that  pony  loved  her  master.  If  either  had 
to  do  without  something  to  eat  it  was  my- 
self. Josie  had  to  have  something,  let  it 
cost  what  it  would.  One  summer  day  I 
stopped  with  an  old  man  and  family  on  the 
side  of  a  hill.  It  was  about  11  o'clock. 
They  had  all  been  out  in  the  field  at  work, 
but  had  beans  and  bacon  on  cooking.  I  told 
the  old  brother  that  I  wanted  to  feed  my 
pony,  and  rest  awhile  under  the  big  shade 
tree.  I  had  feed  in  my  buggy,  but  he  said 
' 'That  is  not  enough. "  He  said  we  would 
have  dinner  soon,  and  told  the  boys  to  go 
and  get  what  he  called  ''tops,"  but  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  corn  on  his  tops.     The 

95 


boys  gave  Josie  a  large  bunch,  and  she  was 
up  to  her  knees  in  them;  a  good  feed  in- 
deed. We  were  sitting  under  the  oak  talk- 
ing about  religion  and  church  matters,  and 
he  said  that  he  had  been  a  member  of  the 
Lutheran  church,  but  had  married  a  Meth- 
odist and  then  joined  her  church.  I  told 
him  I  had  done  the  same  thing.  He  says, 
"Are  you  a  Methodist?^'  I  said,  ''Yes, 
sir."  He  then  turned  around  to  the  boys 
and  said,  *'Boys,  give  that  horse  more 
tops!" 

chapter  xvii. 
Cliff  is  Licensed  to  Preach. 

In  Dec.  of  1885,  I  rented  a  farm  two  and 
a  half  miles  east  of  China  Grove,  Rowan 
county,  near  Harris'  Chapel  church,  and 
moved  my  family  to  it.  Rev.  H.  M.  Blair 
was  pastor  at  that  time.  We  did  not  lack 
for  good  preaching.  We  also  had  a  good 
Sunday  school,  superintended  by  J.  M. 
Maxwell.  He  was  one  of  these  monkey 
kind  of  fellows  (in  short,  he  was  Sankey 
the  second)  that  everybody,  old  and  young 
liked.  And  in  fact  there  was  a  young  lady 
in  Concord  who  liked  him  so  well  that  she 
left  her  father  and  mother  and  cast  her  lot 

96 


with  him.  One  word  now  about  his  wife. 
I  consider  her  one  of  the  salt  of  the  earth, 
and  my  wife  thinks  there  was  never 
another  such  woman— and  I  believe  my  wife 
is  a  woman  of  sound  judgment.  It  is  a 
perfect  show  to  see  these  two  women  meet 
and  hug  and  kiss  and  talk.  They  both 
talk  just  as  hard  as  they  can  all  the  time. 
I  never  could  see  how  one  could  tell  what 
the  other  one  said,  but  they  seem  to  under- 
stand one  another  perfectly.  Well,  they 
are  women,  that  accounts  for  it.  Mrs. 
Clay  and  I  spent  many  pleasant  hours 
with  Mrs.  Maxwell  and  family  in  their 
home.  We  also  found  many  other  kind 
friends  in  that  community. 

Brother  Blair  lived  near  us,  and  I  studied 
under  him.  He  was  very  kind  to  me— 
gave  me  lessons  free  of  charge.  I  was 
still  travehng  for  the  A.  B.  S.  I  made 
a  trip  down  in  what  is  known  as  the  Rocks 
country,  in  Rowan  county.  I  there  met 
with  the  hardest  case  I  have  ever  seen 
among  the  thousands  that  I  have  visited. 
The  family,  which  consisted  of  an  old  man 
and  two  daughters,  lived  in  a  little  hut 
down  in  a  field.  The  old  man  was  not  at 
home  when  I  called  on  them.  I  told  the 
girls   that  I    was    traveling,    and    giving 

97 


Bibles  to  those  who  had  none  and  were  too 
poor  to  buy  them.  One  of  the  girls  told 
me  they  had  no  Bible  and  had  no  money 
to  buy  one.  So  I  told  them  I  would  give 
them  one,  but  I  always  prayed  in  the 
house  where  I  left  a  Bible,  if  the  family  did 
not  object.  One  of  them  said  you  can 
read  ^nd  pray  if  you  want  to.  But  the 
other  one  did  not  approve  of  it.  She  was 
carding  and  did  not  mean  to  be  interrupt- 
ed. She  would  not  quit  carding,  nor  I 
would  not  quit  reading.  She  at  last  raked 
across  her  face  with  the  card  and  cried 
out,  '1  believe  Fm  poisoned."  But  still  I 
read  on.  She  got  some  cotton  off  the  card 
in  her  throat,  got  choked,  threw  her  cards 
dow,  ran  out  in  the  yard,  coughed  and 
spit  and  cut  all  sorts  of  monkey-shines; 
but  I  paid  no  attention  to  her  at  all,  think- 
ing as  many  devils  as  you  have  I  would 
rather  you  were  in  the  yard  than  in  the 
house.  She  saw  it  was  of  no  use— she 
could  not  break  up  the  service.  When 
she  got  the  cotton  out  of  her  throat  she 
came  back  in  the  house,  took  up  her  card 
and  set  in  with  all  her  might  to  card.  In 
a  few  moments  I  ended  the  chapter  and 
said,  '  'Let  us  pray. '  *  When  she  saw  that 
I  was  determined  and  that  she  was  beat 

98 


out,  she  kept  quiet  while  I  prayed.  After 
prayer  I  handed  them  the  Bible  and  said, 
'  'Take  this,  read  and  obey  it.  I  leave  the 
Bible  and  my  prayers  with  you.  In  the 
judgment  we  shall  see  what  good  they 
have  done. ' '  I  then  bade  them  good  bye, 
and  went  on  my  way.  After  I  left  she 
stormed  and  raved  and  cursed  and  swore, 
swearing  that  neither  Bible  nor  my  pray- 
ers should  remain  in  the  house,  that  she 
would  kick  my  prayers  up  the  chimney 
and  the  Bible  out  the  door. 

After  traveling  a  day  or  two  in  that  part 
of  the  country,  I  decided  I  would  have  a 
church  built  in  that  community  if  possible. 
There  was  no  M.  E.  S.  S.  anywhere  near 
this  place.  They  had  a  union  Sunday 
school  at  a  school  house  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. The  people  wanted  me  to  preach 
for  them,  but  I  told  them  I  was  not  a 
preacher,  but  I  would  get  some  one  else 
that  could  preach  for  them  if  possible. 
Soon  after  this  they  had  a  Sunday  school 
celebration,  and  invited  me  to  come  and 
bring  Mrs.  Clay.  I  got  Brother  Triplett 
to  go  down  with  us.  We  had  a  big  crowd, 
a  big  dinner,  and  a  nice  time.  Bro.  T. 
talked  church  on  Saturday  and  preached 
to  a  large  congregation  on  Sunday.     Bro. 

99 


Blair  promised  to  go  and  preach  for  them 
in  January,  but  when  the  time  came  the 
weather  was  so  bad  that  he  could  not  go, 
so  they  did  not  get  any  more  preaching 
that  winter. 

I  continued  to  study  under  Bro.  Blair, 
and  on  the  3rd  of  July,  1886,  I  was  licens- 
ed to  preach,  Rev.  H.  M.  Blair  being  my 
pastor  and  Dr.  W.  H.  Bobbitt  my  P.  E.  I 
preached  my  first  sermon  at  Love's  Chapel, 
Stanley  county,  N.  C.  When  I  went  to 
preaching  I  could  not  keep  the  "Rocks" 
and  the  bad  woman  out  of  my  mind,  but 
0!  how  I  dreaded  it.  It  was  almost  a 
Jonah  case.  But  my  monkey  Sankey  fel- 
low went  with  me  down  there  one  Sunday 
(he  had  heard  me  a  time  or  two  at  Harris' 
Chapel) ,  and  he  told  them  I  could  preach 
and  would  preach  for  them  if  they  wanted 
me  to.  Some  of  them  seemed  very  anx- 
ious for  me  to  come.  So  I  thought  I  would 
risk  it.  I  left  an  appointment  and  went 
and  filled  it  as  best  I  could.  They  seem- 
ed to  be  well  pleased  and  wanted  me  to 
come  back,  which  I  did,  But  I  want  to 
tell  you,  some  of  these  people  eyed  me 
closely.  Some  were  superstitious,  some 
were  wicked  and  ignorant,  while  others 
were  good,  clever  people.  I  preached  at 
100 


a  school  house  for  some  time,  and  they 
wanted  me  to  hold  a  protracted  meeting. 
I  told  them  we  could  not  hold  a  meeting 
in  that  school  house,  as  it  was  too  small, 
but  if  they  were  in  earnest  about  the  mat- 
ter to  go  to  work  and  clear  off  a  place  in 
the  grove  and  build  a  stand,  and  I  would 
hold  a  meeting  to  the  best  of  my  ability. 
Well,  when  I  came  to  my  next  appoint- 
ment the  grove  was  nicely  cleared  off, 
the  stand  built  and  the  seats  all  ready.  I 
made  the  appointment  for  the  meeting  and 
met  it.  I  will  tell  you  in  my  next  how  I 
came  out. 

chapter  xviii 
The  Meeting  in  the  Grove. 

I  had  an  appointment  at  Harris'  Chapel 
every  two  weeks,  and  at  Cowan's  school 
house  once  a  month,  near  Bro.  W.  A. 
Brandon's,  who  was  one  of  the  stewards  at 
Harris'  Chapel. 

Well,  the  time  rolled  round  for  the  meet- 
ing at  the  ''Rocks,"  and  I  went.  The  peo- 
ple had  gathered  up  every  piece  of  plank 
that  could  be  found  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  an  old  darkey  near  by  gave  them  all 
the  slabs  out  of  his  barn  to  make  seats  of, 

101 


but  every  seat  was  full  and  many  were 
standing  when  we  got  there.  My  father- 
in-law,  Rev.  D.  Brown,  was  with  me  and 
preached  a  soul-stirring  sermon  at  3  o'clock 
p.  m.,  and  went  home.  I  preached  at 
night,  and  set  in  for  a  week,  day  and 
night.  Tuesday  it  began  to  rain,  but  the 
people  said  we  could  not  afford  to  close  the 
meeting.  So  they  cleared  out  an  old  shop, 
and  I  preached  in  it,  and  God  blessed  our 
efforts,  and  souls  were  saved.  When  the 
rainy  spell  was  over  we  went  back  to  the 
grove  and  began  with  renewed  energy  and 
zeal.  The  spirit  came  down  in  great 
power.  Sinners  wept  and  cried  for  mercy, 
mourners  were  converted,  and  we  had  a 
wonderful  stir  in  the  community.  After 
the  first  week  I  preached  only  at  night,  it 
being  a  busy  time  with  farmers.  The  peo- 
ple had  to  work  in  the  day  time,  and  so 
did  I  as  I  was  a  farmer  also,  I  would  work 
hard  all  day  and  drive  down  there,  four 
miles,  every  evening  and  preach. 

One  night  when  I  drove  up  to  the  grove 
an  old  man  about  six  feet  and  three  inches 
high  came  up  to  me  and  said,  "I  want  you 
to  quit  preachin'  here.  The  people  are  a 
doin'  sights  of  harm'  shoutin'  and  hollerin' 
as  they  go  home  from  this  place,  and  I 

102 


tell   you   now,  your  preachin'   is  a  doin' 
more   harm  than  good."     I  told   him   in 
plain  English  that  I  would  not  quit,  be- 
cause there  was   a  class  of  people  come  to 
hear  me  that  would  not  go  anywhere  else, 
and  that  I  believe  our  meeting  was  doing 
good.     He  then  said,  "If  you  won't  stop 
this  meetin'  I  want  you  to  preach  in  day- 
time and  not  at  night."    I  said,   "That  I 
cannot  do,  as  both  myself  and  this  people 
have  to  work  for  a  living  and  this  is  a  busy 
time  with  us  all,  and  I  intend  preaching  at 
night  just  as  I  have  been  doing,  and  if  the 
people  do  not  behave,  you  just  give  me  the 
names  of  those  who  do  not  and  I  will  set- 
tle with  them. ' '     I  then  said  the  time  is  up 
and  the  people  are  waiting.     I  left  him, 
entered  the  stand  and  began  my  service. 
I   had  no  help  except  Mrs.  Clay  and  my 
Httle  daughte>^   Minnie.     They  went  with 
me  every  night,  and  sometimes  we  would 
stay  there  in  that  grove  and  sing  and  pray 
for  penitants  till  11  o'clock,  and  then  drive 
home  four  miles.     There  were  some  young 
people  that  attended  my  meeting  that  were 
faithful  to  sing  for  me,  but  they  were  not 
Christians. 

This  same  night  that  the  old  man  wanted 
me  to   stop   the  meeting  the   Holy   Spirit 

103 


came  down  with  great  power  and  many 
were  convicted,  among  them  the  old  tall 
man's  son.  I  had  heard  of  such  convic- 
tion, but  had  never  seen  anything  like  it. 
Some  were  crying  aloud  for  mercy,  others 
were  prostrate  on  the  ground,  apparently 
dead.  This  state  of  affairs  created  great 
excitement  among  the  people.  One  wo- 
man said  to  Mrs.  Clay,  "I  have  noticed 
something  wrong  with  my  sister's  mind 
for  sometime,  and  now  it  is  clear  gone." 
The  old  man's  son  fell  backward  as  though 
a  ball  had  gone  through  his  heart,  his 
head  striking  an  old  slad  bench  so  hard 
you  could  have  heard  the  crack  one  hun- 
dred yards.  He  lay  as  still  as  death  and 
if  he  breathed  it  could  not  be  discovered. 
The  old  man  walked  up  and  stood  with 
his  hat  on.  He  looked  at  me  as  much  as 
to  say,  "You  have  done  it  now,  sure 
enough."  but  I  don't  know  what  he 
thought,  for  he  did  not  speak  a  word.  I 
went  and  spoke  to  the  seemingly  dead 
man,  but  all  to  no  purpose — he  paid  no 
attention  to  me  at  all.  The  scene  was 
truly  awful  and  the  power  great.  While 
I  was  standing  by  this  man  another  one 
fell.  I  caught  him  and  laid  him  on  a 
bench  against  the  stand.     Mrs.  Clay  was 

104 


talking  to  the  ladies,  and  my  little  girl 
was  talking  and  singing.  She  would  talk 
awhile  and  then  break  out  with  some 
sweet  song.  She  went  to  the  old  man's 
son,  fell  on  her  knees  and  began  singing 
in  her  sweet,  childish  voice,  *1  am  so  glad 
that  Jesus  loves  me."  This  was  a  new 
song  to  those  people.  Tears  flowed  from 
many  eyes.  She  sang  as  no  one  but  a 
child  can  do.  And  Jesus  came  and  blessed 
that  man's  soul.  He  sprang  right 
straight  up,  it  seemed  without  any  effort, 
and  cried  out,  '1  see  him!  I  see  him! 
glory,  glory,  glory,''  and  started  to  run 
right  through  the  congregation,  I  thought 
he  would  run  over  Mrs.  Clay  and  the  pros- 
trate ladies,  so  I  caught  him  by  the  coat- 
tail,  but  could  not  hold  him.  But  no  one 
was  hurt,  and  the  old  man  has  been  my 
friend  ever  since.  The  other  man  that 
fell  was  converted  also,  but  was  very 
quiet.  The  ladies  all  came  to  themselves, 
and  to  the  astonishment  of  many,  were  in 
their  right  minds. 

We  organized  a  society  of  ten  at  the 
close  of  the  meeting,  and  went  to  work 
without  a  cent  to  build  a  church.  After 
receiving  the  lot — which  was  donated  by 
Brother  Jim  Ludwick— I  said,  '  *We  will  be- 

105 


gin  a  church  on  this  lot  on  the  9th  of  Jan- 
uary. Meet  me  at  this  place  on  that  day- 
ready  for  work.'* 

On  the  morning  of  January  9th,  1887,  I 
took  my  axe  on  my  shoulder,  got  on  my 
horse  and  rode  down  there,  and  found 
three  white  men  and  a  negro  on  the 
ground.  The  negro  was  the  one  that  gave 
us  the  slabs  from  his  barn  to  make  the 
seats  of.  I  took  my  axe  and  struck  the 
first  lick  for  the  new  church.  On  the  6th 
of  February  we  raised  the  frame.  The 
rock  foundation,  framing,  lumber  work  all 
had  cost  us  20  cents  in  money  up  to  date. 
I  tell  you  those  people  worked  with  a  will. 
They  were  poor  and  had  but  little  money, 
but  they  made  it  up  in  work.  The  build- 
ing was  25x40  feet.  I  preached  in  it  in 
May.  It  was  finished  that  year,  and  paid 
for  in  a  short  time.  For  my  first  year's 
services  at  this  place  they  gave  me  $2.90 
and  a  one  horse  load  of  pumpkins.  This 
was  a  hard  country,  indeed. 

On  one  occasion  I  preached  to  a  congre- 
gation of  about  twenty  at  eleven  o'clock 
one  Sunday,  and  in  less  than  a  week  one- 
fifth  of  that  congregation  was  in  Salisbury 
jail. 


106 


chapter  xix. 

Takes  Work  in  Conference. 

As  I  was  a  local  preacher,  I  had  no  regu- 
lar charge.  So  the  Rocks  church  that  I 
had  built  was  put  on  the  Rowan  Circuit, 
Salisbury  District.  Rev.  G.  W.  Fisher  was 
in  charge  of  said  circuit  at  this  time.  He 
was  a  noble  young  man  and  a  good  preach- 
er. I  was  still  preaching  once  a  month  at 
the  Rocks  church,  and  when  anything  went 
wrong  at  that  place  he  would  say,  *'CHfi, 
you  will  have  to  go  down  there  and  get 
things  straight;  I  can't  do  anything  with 
those  people.''  I  would  go  cheerfully  for 
the  Brother,  and  generally  succeeded  in 
getting  matters  settled  to  all  concerned. 
I  was  still  preaching  at  Harris  Chapel  and 
Cowan's  school  house.  About  this  time 
some  people  about  four  miles  south  of  Salis- 
bury wanted  me  to  preach  for  them  at  a 
school  house  in  that  community  and  I 
agreed  to  do  so.  They  made  the  appoint- 
ment. I  was  to  preach  at  Cowan's  school 
house  on  Saturday  night  and  at  this  place 
on  Sunday  morning.  I  filled  my  appoint- 
ment at  the  school  house  and  stayed  with 
Bro.  Brandon  the  remainder  of  the  night. 
My  monkey   Sankey  Bro.    was   on   hand, 

107 


and  in  company  with  Bro.  Brandon  and 
Sankey  I  put  out  across  a  rough  country 
for  the  appointed  place.  On  reaching  the 
place  I  found  that  the  word  had  been  cir- 
culated that  the  committemen  would  not 
let  us  have  the  use  of  the  school  house  and 
so  but  very  few  were  present.  Bro.  B.  C. 
Elrod,  Bro.  J.  Fesperman  and  two  of  his 
children,  Tommy  and  Jennie,  Bro.  Bran- 
don and  Sankey  composed  the  congrega- 
tion. I  said,  well,  we  will  have  a  service 
before  we  part  and  we  will  not  become  dis- 
couraged because  we  are  locked  out,  so  we 
carried  three  old  railroad  sills  out  into  a 
dogwood  thicket  for  seats.  I  read  a  chap- 
ter from  God's  Word,  we  sang  a  hymn  and 
prayed.  After  prayer  we  talked  a  little  on 
the  lesson  I  had  read  and  of  how  we  had 
been  treated  by  the  committeemen.  I  said 
let  us  not  despise  the  day  of  small  things, 
but  thank  God  for  this  service  and  take 
courage.  Sankey  said,  ' 'No  one  knows  but 
what  we  may  go  from  this  place  into  a 
brick  church  some  day.  I  left  no  other  ap- 
pointment for  this  place,  but  like  Mary  of 
old  I  kept  this  service  and  Sankey 's  saying 
and  pondered  them  in  my  heart.  I  will 
refer  to  this  again. 
In  1888  I  told  Bro.  Bobbitt,  our  P.  E., 

108 


that  I  would  take  work  the  next  year  if  he 
had  anything  in  his  district  that  I  could  do. 
I  had  been  helping  some  of  the  brethren  in 
their  protracted  meetings,  among  whom 
were  Brothers  Stone,  Fisher,  Rowe,  Gault 
and  Franklin.  I  was  still  in  the  Bible  work 
but  could  not  be  satisfied  without  preach- 
ing. At  the  next  session  of  the  annual 
conference  the  Rowan  Mission  was  made. 
It  was  composed  of  Zion  church,  my  new 
Rocks  church,  and  an  appointment  at  Dry's 
school  house,  Cabarrus  county,  nineteen 
miles  southwest  of  Salisbury,  and  I  was 
assigned  to  the  Rowan  Mission.  Not  very 
far  from  the  place  we  held  the  service  in 
the  dogwood  thicket  lived  an  old  man  by 
the  name  of  Brown  who  was  sorely  afflicted 
and  could  not  attend  church.  He  was  a 
member  of  Harris  Chapel  and  as  he  could 
not  go  to  church,  I  often  preached  for  him 
at  his  home,  quite  a  number  of  people  came 
out  there  to  preaching  and  they  wanted  me 
to  preach  for  them  regularly,  which  I  agreed 
to  do.  The  house  in  which  Bro.  Brown 
lived  was  very  large,  and  the  man  to  whom 
it  belonged  gave  us  the  privilege  of  holding 
services  in  a  large  upper  room.  A  kind 
friend  by  the  name  of  B.  Ludwick  furnish- 
ed   lumber    and    nails    and    some  of  the 

109 


brethren  made  seats  and  fixed  up  the  room 
for  us.  We  now  had  both  preaching  and 
Sunday  school  regularly  at  this  place,  and 
Sankey  taught  a  singing  class  here  also 
which  was  a  great  help  to  the  Sunday 
school.  There  were  a  few  Methodists  in 
this  community,  among  them  were  B.  Lud- 
wick's  wife  and  daughter,  B.  C.  Elrod  and 
wife  and  daughter.  Bro.  Elrod' s  daughter 
married  a  Presbyterian  who  was  an  excel- 
lent man  and  was  our  Sunday  school  super- 
intendent (he  has  since  joined  the  Meth- 
odist church).  Bro.  Elrod  was  our  stew- 
ard. He  was  a  Methodist  of  the  old  type; 
he  married  a  daughter  of  Daniel  Sullivan, 
who  was  also  a  staunch  Methodist  and  one 
of  the  best  men  I  ever  knew.  I  visited  him 
and  his  widowed  daughter,  Mrs.  Wincoff, 
very  often  in  his  last  days;  he  was  a  great 
sufferer  for  many  days,  but  his  death  was 
one  of  triumph  and  victory.  He  now  rests 
in  peace,  and  may  God's  richest  blessings 
rest  upon  his  widowed  daughter,  who  is 
now  blind.  The  time  had  come  for  my  pro- 
tracted meeting  at  the  Rocks  church,  and  I 
went  into  it  with  all  my  heart  expecting 
the  Lord  to  bless  us.  You  will  remember 
that  this  church  was  in  a  pretty  bad  place, 
that  is,  there  were  some  very  bad  people  in 

110 


this  community;  and  I  told  some  of  them 
before  I  began  my  meeting  that  I  was  go- 
ing to  have  order  in  that  church  and  on  the 
grounds,  and  if  they  did  not  behave  some  of 
them  would  land  in  prison.  But  as  you 
know  wherever  good  is  being  done  the 
devil's  agents  are  always  on  hand,  and  so 
it  was  on  this  occasion.  One  fellow  fur- 
nished the  liquor  and  got  another  one  to 
get  drunk  and  go  and  break  up  Cliff's 
meeting.  He  was  on  hand  that  evening 
sure  enough,  so  drunk  that  he  could  not 
walk.  Just  as  I  drove  up  to  the  church  he 
fell  backward  from  a  seat  in  the  yard. 
Brother  A.  Gannt  was  to  preach  for  me 
that  night  and  I  told  him  to  go  in  and  go 
ahead,  that  I  was  going  to  clean  up  the 
yard.  I  took  the  harness  off  my  horse  and 
another  one,  and  sent  two  men  after  a 
warrant;  they  got  the  warrant,  the  drunk- 
en man  was  arrested  and  found  guilty,  but 
gave  bond.  Two  or  three  others  had  to  do 
the  same  thing  in  the  next  day  or  two. 
But  still  the  meeting  went  on  and  God  was 
with  us  in  great  power.  One  day  while  I 
was  inviting  penitents  to  the  altar  a  young 
man  in  the  congregation  jumped  up  and 
ran  out  of  the  house  leaving  his  hat  and 
umbrella.  He  ran  up  the  public  road  for 
111 


some  distance,  left  the  road  and  ran  around 
a  rock  mountain  and  hid.  He  said  the 
devil  was  after  him,  right  at  his  heels. 
Next  morning  he  was  at  church  and  was 
very  penitent,  I  talked  to  him  before  we 
went  into  the  church  and  told  him  to  go  in 
with  me  and  take  a  front  seat,  and  when  I 
called  for  penitents  for  him  to  come  to  the 
altar  instead  of  running.  He  did  so,  and 
poor  fellow,  I  have  never  seen  anything  to 
compare  to  the  agony  he  was  in.  He 
jumped,  he  yelled,  he  prayed,  and  con- 
fessed. He  said  to  me  "I  have  cursed  and 
swore,  lied,  cheated  and  got  drunk,  but 
that  running  yesterday  was  the  worst 
thing  I  ever  did,  and  I  don't  believe  the 
Lord  ever  will  forgive  me,"  and  then  he 
yelled  till  you  could  have  heard  him  half  a 
mile,  '  '0  Lord  do  have  mercy  on  me,  poor 
me."  He  would  say  **the  Lord  has  for- 
given me  for  all  my  meanness  but  that 
running  and  I  don't  believe  He  ever  will 
forgive  me  for  that. "  I  told  him  the  Lord 
did  not  forgive  a  part  of  a  man's  sins,  but 
when  he  forgave  one  he  forgave  all,  and 
that  God  would  have  mercy  on  him  if  he 
would  beheve  it.  He  then  became  a  little 
more  quiet  and  in  a  few  minutes  he  was 
happily  converted.     There  was   one   very 

112 


amusing  incident  which  occurred  during 
this  meeting.  One  day  after  the  sermon 
the  altar  was  crowded  with  weeping  peni- 
tents and  the  whole  congregation  seemed 
to  feel  the  power  of  the  Spirit.  Some  were 
weeping,  some  singing,  some  praying  and 
others  shouting.  At  this  point  Bro.  Gannt 
noticed  a  lady  in  the  back  part  of  the 
church  who  seemed  to  be  in  very  great 
distress  she  was  going  through  queer  con- 
tortions of  the  body,  wringing  her  hands 
and  weeping.  Bro.  G.  went  to  her  and 
said:  ''My  friend,  if  you  feel  that  you  area 
sinner,  just  take  the  trouble  all  to  the  Lord 
in  prayer,  he  will  help  you.'*  She  said  ''0 
Lordie,  I  have  a  felon  on  my  finger  and  it 
is  about  to  kill  me;  0  Lordie.'' 

At  this  meeting  we  had  forty-three  con- 
verts, thirty-one  of  whom  I  received  into 
the  church  at  one  time,  among  them  the 
fellow  that  got  drunk  to  break  up  the 
meeting.  Near  the  church  lived  a  good 
brother  with  whom  I  often  stopped,  who 
owned  a  little  black  dog  whose  business  it 
was  to  catch  a  chicken  when  the  preacher 
came.  This  time  I  had  been  in  the  com- 
munity two  weeks  and  had  been  at  this 
place  so  often  that  the  dog  had  learned  to 
know  me  and  my  horse.  After  the  meet- 
US 


ing  closed  and  I  was  on  my  way  home  I 
drove  up  to  this  brother's  house  to  get  some 
fruit,  not  intending  to  stay  for  dinner.  In 
fact,  could  not  stay.  Just  as  soon  as  I 
drove  into  the  yard  that  dog  made  a  rush 
for  the  chickens  and  killed  two  in  less  than 
four  minutes.  I  could  tell  you  more  about 
this  dog,  but  this  is  sufficient.  These  are 
facts.  See  Bro.  Triplett— he  has  served 
this  church.  May  God  bless  all  of  these 
kind  Rocks  people  is  my  sincere  prayer. 


chapter  xx. 

My  Mother's  Death. 

In  the  year  1887  Miss  Jane  E.  left  our 
house  to  make  her  home  with  her  son,  who 
is  now  married  and  doing  well.  Miss  Jane 
lived  with  us  fourteen  years.  She  was  in- 
deed a  mother  to  us  all;  she  was  so  kind 
and  helpful  to  Mrs.  Clay  and  so  good  to  the 
little  ones.  Every  one  of  the  children 
would  go  to  her  for  everything  they  want- 
ed, and  they  were  sure  to  get  it  if  it  could 
be  had;  and  to  this  day  we  all  love  her  as 
we  have  never  loved  any  one  else  outside 
of  our  immediate  family.  May  God  richly 
bless  her  and  hers  is  my  prayer. 

114 


In  1889  we  left  the  farm  near  Harris 
Chapel,  and  moved  to  Dunn's  Mountain, 
four  miles  east  of  Salisbury,  where  we 
were  kindly  received.  Some  of  the  good 
neighbors  had  come  in  and  cleaned  up  the 
house.  Others  had  come  in  bringing  bas- 
kets filled  with  good  things  to  eat  that 
lasted  us  several  days.  May  God  bless  all 
these  kind  people. 

In  May  of  this  year  my  mother  visited  us 
for  the  last  time.  Her  health  was  then 
failing.  She  grew  gradually  worse  during 
the  summer,  and  by  the  first  of  September 
was  so  much  worse  that  Mrs.  Clay  and  I 
left  our  children  and  went  and  stayed  with 
her  until  she  died.  She  suffered  more  than 
human  tongue  can  tell,  but  her  faith  was 
strong  in  God.  She  had  no  desire  to  get 
well,  and  told  us  she  would  never  be  any 
better  in  this  world,  but  said,  '1  shall  soon 
be  at  rest  where  there  will  be  no  more 
suffering.'' 

On  the  24th  day  of  September,  1889,  she 
peacefully  passed  away.  None  but  those 
who  have  lost  a  mother  can  have  any  idea 
of  my  feelings  at  this  sad  parting.  Oh! 
how  sad  and  desolate  I  felt;  but  thanks  be 
to  God  for  the  sweet  assurance  I  had  of 
meeting  my  precious  mother  in  the  happy 
115 


home  above,   where  parting   will    be    no 
more. 

MY  MOTHER  WAS  A  SWEET    SINGER 

A  song,  sung  by  a  mother  dear, 
Who  sang  to  me  from  year  to  year; 
Who  knows  the  depths  of  a  mother's  love? 
Who  now  sings  in  heaven  above. 

Mother's  voice  I  remember  well, 
Oh!  such  music,  no  tongue  can  tell. 
Some  mothers  still  live,  some  are  gone, 
And  we  are  left  to  sing  alone. 

Earth's  work  done,  them  we  hope  to  see, 
Sing  with  them  and  in  glory  be 
Above  with  Christ,  the  Christian's  home, 
Mother  nor  child  will  sing  alone. 

We'll  rest  from  sorrow  here  below, 
Mother  nor  child  shall  know  a  woe; 
Then  there  with  Jesus  our  great  King, 
Mother  and  child  will  ever  sing. 


Composed  and  written  by  Cliff  and  dedicated  to  the 
Memory  of  His  Mother. 

I  closed  up  my  work,  went  to  conference, 
and  was  returned  to  the  same  work  with 
another  mission  point  added  to  it.  A  large 
cotton  mill  was  in  course  of  construction  at 
Salisbury,  and  the  people  here  wanted  and 
needed  a  church.  This  mission  point  was 
called  Chestnut  Hill.  We  had  no  church, 
school,  members  or  money;  nothing  but 
open  air.  We  were  now  living  at  the  old 
home   place  where  my  mother  died.     It 

116 


was  too  far  from  my  work,  so  I  had  to  look 
out  for  a  place  nearer  it.  Our  kind-heart- 
ed friend  B.  Ludwick  offered  to  furnish  the 
material  to  build  a  house  for  me  to  live  in. 
It  was  to  be  located  on  his  plantation,  one 
and  a  half  miles  from  Chestnut  Hill  I 
gladly  accepted  his  very  kind  offer,  sold 
the  old  home  place,  and  moved  into  a  rented 
house  on  the  :first  day  of  January,  1890. 
On  the  first  day  of  January  we  began  work 
on  our  new  home.  B.  Ludwick,  B.  C. 
Elrod,  J.  A.  Fesperman  and  others,  helped 
us  with  the  house,  and  on  the  4th  day  of 
February,  of  the  same  year,  we  moved  into 
our  new  house  of  five  rooms  neatly  fur- 
nished. 

In  a  very  short  time  after  we  moved  to 
our  new  home  Bro.  B.  C.  Elrod  died  and 
went  to  his  home  in  heaven.  Peace  to  his 
ashes 

Bro.  J.  J.  Wrenn  was  Presiding  Elder  of 
the  Salisbury  District  at  this  time,  and  we 
began  to  look  around  the  cotton  mill  at 
Salisbury  for  a  lot  on  which  to  build  a 
church.  Previous  to  this  time  two  lots  had 
been  deeded  to  the  Methodist  church  for 
the  purpose  of  building  a  church.  One  by 
B.  C.  Elrod,  the  other  by  B.  Ludwick,  but 
it  seemed  that  neither  of  these  was  the 

117 


place  that  God  intended  us  to  build,  as  we 
could  not  succeed  at  either. 

As  I  have  said  before  we  had  nothing 
but  a  name  to  begin  with  at  Salisbury.  In 
looking  around  we  found  a  man  by  the  name 
of  Myrick  who  was  a  Methodist,  and  who 
was  also  superintendent  of  the  cotton  mill. 
I  found  him  busy  at  work.  I  introduced 
myself  to  him,  and  told  him  my  business. 
He  seemed  to  be  very  much  interested  in 
me  and  my  work.  He  was  a  man  of 
fine  sense  and  good  judgment,  and  a  first- 
class  Christian  gentleman.  In  a  few  days 
we  found  a  lot  that  suited  us,  belonging  to 
the  Episcopal  minister  at  Salisbury.  His 
price  for  the  lot  was  $100,  ''But,"  said  he, 
'  'if  you  want  this  lot  for  the  purpose  of 
building  a  Methodist  church,  I  will  deed  it 
to  you  for  $66§.''  We  gladly  accepted  his 
very  liberal  offer.  The  lot  being  secured, 
the  next  thing  was  to  raise  money  to  build 
a  church.  Now  we  wanted  to  build  a  nice, 
good  sized  church  at  this  place;  so  I  went  to 
work  with  a  will  to  raise  money  for  this 
purpose,  but  had  poor  success.  I  soon 
abandoned  the  idea  of  building  a  large 
house,  for  the  present  at  least;  and  con- 
cluded to  make  an  effort  for  a  small  chapel 
to  be  used  for  preaching,   and  also   for 

118 


school  purposes,  there  being  no  school 
house  in  the  district;  and  in  this  we  suc- 
ceeded. Bro.  J.  Knox,  a  good  Presbyte- 
rian, had  told  me  he  would  give  me  $25 
toward  our  church,  and  he  gave  us  the  $25 
on  our  little  chapel.  Samuel  Wiley,  anoth- 
er Presbyterian  brother,  gave  us  $25.  Mrs. 
Cole,  Edwin  Shaver,  the  McCubbins,  and 
others,  came  to  our  help  liberally.  We 
built  a  chapel  22x36  feet,  twelve  feet  high, 
seated  and  painted  it  for  $325.  I  preached 
in  this  little  chapel  for  the  first  time  the 
second  Sunday  in  September,  1890. 

Previous  to  this  time  I  had  organized  a 
little  society  at  old  Bro.  Brown's  called  the 
Davis  Mine  Society.  By  the  time  that  we 
moved  into  our  new  houee  at  B.  Ludwick's 
old  Bro.  Brown  had  gotten  better  and  had 
moved  near  us,  so  we  moved  the  preaching 
place  to  our  house,  and  preached  there 
every  two  weeks  till  our  chapel  at  Salis- 
bury was  completed.  My  Davis  Mine  peo- 
ple—as you  will  see  further  on— nealy  all 
joined  this  church.  Reader,  mark  our 
steps;  remember  the  Davis  Mine  Society 
was  an  outcome  of  the  service  in  the  dog- 
wood thicket,  and  we  are  on  the  forward 
march  and  have  gotten  this  far  toward 
Sankey's  brick  church,  and  by  the  grace  of 

119 


God  we  expect  to  go  all  the  way. 

We  organized  a  Sunday  school  at  once 
in  our  new  chapel.  Bro.  Myrick  was  elect- 
ed superintendent;  it  was  success. 

I  now  held  a  protracted  meeting  which 
resulted  in  about  fifty  conversions;  and  on 
the  first  Sunday  in  October,  1890,  I  organ- 
ized a  society  with  thirty-six  members.  I 
bought  a  lot  adjoining  the  church  lot,  had 
a  good  house  built  on  it,  and  moved  into  it 
the  11th  day  of  November,  1890.  We  were 
very  warmly  received  at  this  place.  About 
forty  people— representing  every  denomi- 
nation in  the  place — called  on  us  the  first 
night  we  spent  in  our  new  home,  and  every 
one  brought  something.  I  will  not  attempt 
to  name  the  articles  we  received  that  night; 
I  will  just  say  we  had  plenty  of  good  things 
to  eat  for  days  to  come.  May  God's  rich- 
est blessings  rest  and  abide  on  these  good 
people  now  and  forever.  I  went  to  confer- 
ence feeling  good  over  our  move. 

chapter  xxi. 
Begins  Work  on  the  Brick  Church. 

At  the  Conference  in  Concord  in  1890 
they  made  a  station  of  Chestnut  Hill, 
though  it  was  a  mission,  and  it  received  an 

120 


appropriation  of  $325.  Nearly  all  of  the 
Davis  Mine  members  joined  this  church— 
in  fact  the  two  appointments  became  one 
—and  I  was  sent  back  to  the  work.  Our 
good  Presbyterian  brother,  J.  A.  Fesper- 
man,  joined  our  church,  and  is  as  true  as 
steel  to  his  church  and  pastor.  We  had  a 
very  pleasant  year;  had  quite  a  number  of 
conversions  and  accessions  to  the  church. 
I  had  made  myself  personally  responsible 
for  the  lumber  used  in  our  chapel,  and  we 
still  owed  about  $38.  But  in  order  to  en- 
courage our  Sunday  school  we  thought  best 
to  buy  an  organ,  which  we  did;  and  our 
church  and  Sunday  school  work  went  on 
nicely. 

We  had  quite  a  number  of  good  workers 
in  the  church.  Among  them  was  a  young 
lady  who  was  one  of  the  best  workers  in  a 
revival  meeting  I  have  ever  seen.  She 
was  always  ready  and  willing  to  do  any- 
thing and  everything  she  could  for  the  sal- 
vation of  souls,  and  to  help  her  pastor  in 
his  work. 

Just  here  I  will  mention  a  httle  incident 
that  occurred  during  one  of  my  meetings 
at  Chestnut  Hill.  After  the  sermon  I 
called  for  penitents,  and  they  came  till  they 
were  about  three  deep  around  the  altar. 

121 


As  I  was  talking  to  the  penitents  at  the 
altar  I  was  wondering  in  my  mind  where 
Miss  Delia  M.  was.  (That  is  the  name  of 
the  young  lady  referred  to  in  the  foregoing 
paragraph. )  On  looking  around  I  saw  her 
at  a  window,  talking  to  two  young  men. 
They  were  up  on  a  pile  of  wood  that  was 
stacked  up  under  the  window.  They  were 
afraid  to  come  inside,  for  fear  she  would 
get  after  them;  and  yet  they  wanted  to  see 
what  was  going  on  on  the  inside.  When 
she  saw  them  at  the  window  she  pressed 
through  the  crowd  to  them,  and  began 
talking  to  them  about  their  souls'  salva- 
tion. She  pressed  the  matter  so  earnestly 
that  they  both  got  down  on  their  knees  on 
that  pile  of  wood,  and  she  knelt  down  in- 
side of  the  window,  and  prayed  with  and 
for  them,  pointing  them  to  the  Lamb  of 
God,  the  Saviour  of  Sinners. 

We  had  a  young  men's  prayer-meeting 
every  Tuesday  night,  and  when  the  time 
came  you  would  see  Bros.  Myrick,  Odell, 
Hartman,  Bro.  R.  Leonard,  and  others; 
but  those  mentioned  were  always  present 
unless  sickness  prevented  them. 

We  worked  hard  and  prayed  earnestly 
for  the  success  of  Zion  at  this  point.  The 
time  had  now  come  when  the  $38  due  on 

122 


the  chapel  lumber  had  to  be  paid.  The  man 
was  pressing  me  for  it,  and  I  could  not  get 
it.  I  told  Brother  Wrenn,  my  Presiding 
Elder,  about  the  press,  and  asked  him  if  he 
could  help  me.  He  told  me  to  wait  until 
the  District  Conference,  and  he  would  make 
a  statement  of  my  work  and  take  up  a  col- 
lection to  pay  off  the  debt.  But  he  failed 
to  do  ither,  so  I  went  home  very  much  dis- 
appointed, and  drew  my  money  out  of  the 
building  and  loan  association  and  paid  the 
debt;  and  I  have  not  gotten  it  all  back  yet. 

Well,  we  closed  the  year  pleasantly,  and 
I  went  to  conference  at  Asheville  in  1891, 
and  was  returned  to  Chestnut  Hill.  We 
agreed  this  year  to  build  a  good  brick 
church  at  Chestnut  Hill.  The  people  were 
poor,  but  willing  to  do  all  they  could.  We 
could  not  get  a  contractor  to  build  it  for 
less  than  $2000.  I  told  the  people  I  was 
confident  it  could  be  built  for  $1,700.  So 
with  that  understanding  we  went  to  work, 
trusting  in  the  Lord. 

As  I  have  already  said,  we  had  a  good 
Sunday  school.  Bro.  Myrick  was  our  super- 
intendent; Sister  Annie,  his  wife,  was  our 
organist.  Our  Sankey  was  on  hand,  of 
course,  and  he — with  all  the  rest — did  all 
he  could  to  help  us,  and  his  work  did  a  great 
deal  of  good. 

123 


The  majority  of  the  Methodists  up  town 
were  not  in  favor  of  us  building,  and  gave 
us  but  Httle  help.  But  in  this  church,  as 
in  the  building  of  our  chapel,  the  Presby- 
terians came  to  our  relief  manfully.  God 
bless  every  one  of  them!  Mrs.  Cole  gave 
us  $15;  Bro.  Edwin  Shaver  gave  us  $50, 
and  then  made  us  a  present  of  a  fine  Bible 
for  the  pulpit;  Bro.  John  Knox  gave  us 
$150  worth  of  brick;  Bro.  Samuel  Wiley 
sent  us  a  check  for  $150.  You  will  remem- 
ber that  the  above  named  contributed  lib- 
erally to  our  little  chapel.  All  this  kind- 
ness we  appreciated  very  much,  and  felt 
very  much  encouraged  to  press  on.  I  had 
received  two  carpenters  and  a  brick-mason 
into  the  church,  and  they  were  good  fel- 
lows, too,  and  I  knew  that  I  could  depend 
upon  them  for  work.  So  I  drew  the  plan 
and  specifications  of  the  church,  and  we 
went  ahead,  getting  only  fairly  started  in 
1892.  At  the  Conference  at  Winston  I 
presented  an  application  to  the  Extension 
Board,  and  they  granted  me  $120.  I  was 
again  returned  to  Chestnut  Hill. 

As  the  winter  was  extremely  bad  we  did 
nothing  more  to  the  church  till  in  the 
spring  of  1893. 

On  the  27th  of  March,  1893,  I  had  all  my 

124 


upper  teeth  extracted.  That  stopped  me 
from  preaching  for  some  time,  but  my  ap- 
pointments were  filled  by  the  following 
brethren:  Groom,  Miller  and  Brown.  Bro. 
Groom  preached  for  me  once,  to  the  de- 
light and  edification  [of  my  people.  Bro. 
Miller,  who  is  a  Presbyterian  and  the  sec- 
retary of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  at  Salisbury, 
filled  my  appointment  several  times.  He 
was  an  excellent  speaker — so  earnest  and 
persuasive  in  his  manner  that  my  people 
were  always  glad  to  hear  him.  Mrs.  Clay's 
father.  Rev.  David  Brown,  preached  for 
me  twice,  with  great  power  and  acceptabil- 
ity. His  presence  and  preaching  did  us  all 
good.  Bros.  Myrick  and  Odell— two  of  the 
leading  bosses  at  the  cotton  mill — said  if 
they  could  always  have  such  preaching  as 
Father  Brown  gave  them  they  thought 
they  could  stand  their  daily  trials  much 
better.  I  had  to  preach  a  time  or  two  be- 
fore I  got  my  teeth,  but  it  was  a  mighty 
flat  preach. 

In  April  of  1893  we  began  work  on  the 
church  again.  We  concluded  to  make  our 
building  some  longer,  so  we  took  out  the 
rear  end  and  added  11  feet  to  it,  which 
made  the  building  38ix63  feet,  with  a  re- 
cess of  5x12  feet,  and  an  open  vestibule  in 

125 


front  10x10  feet.  I  had  good  backing. 
Bro.  Myrick  was  strong  spiritually  and 
financially,  and  as  I  was  contractor  he  told 
me  to  go  ahead  and  buy  the  material.  I 
did  so,  making  myself  responsible  for  the 
debt.  I  never  saw  a  building  go  on  better 
in  my  Kfe,  and  everybody  seemed  to  be  in 
good  heart. 

In  July  of  1893  when  the  building  was 
nearing  completion,  we  had  a  corner-stone 
service.  Our  Presiding  Elder,  J.  J.  Wrenn, 
gave  us  a  good  talk,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Rum- 
ple, of  the  Presbyterian  church,  gave  us  a 
very  encouraging  talk.  Then  the  trustees 
placed  the  corner-stone,  and  we  were  dis- 
missed. 

Our  monkey  Sankey  was  at  this  service, 
and  after  we  were  dismissed  he  turned  to 
me  and  said,  ''Brother,  do  you  remember 
the  meeting  in  the  dogwood  thicket? 
Didn't  I  tell  you  that  we  might  walk  from 
that  place  into  a  brick  church  some  day?'' 

chapter  xxii. 

Our  Best  Man  Died. 

But  with  all  our  success  and  pleasure 
and  great  anticipation  all  our  hearts  were 
much  saddened  by  the  death  of  our  good 

126 


brother,  Joe  Myrick.     As  I  have  already- 
said,  he  was  a  very  strong  man  spirituUy, 
and  by  far  the  strongest  man  financially 
we  had.     Everybody  loved  and  respected 
him;  in  fact  he  was  one  of  the  best  men  I 
have  ever  met.     His  judgment  was  good, 
his  mind   clear,   his   heart  right  and    he 
always  had  a  smile  and  a  kind  word  for 
everyone  he  met.    Although  he  was  super- 
intendent of  the  cotton  mills  and  always 
very  busy  he  never  neglected  the  work  of 
the  church;  when  the  bell  rang  he  was  at 
his  post.     But,   alas,    on  the  5th  day  of 
August,  1893,  he  passed  out  of  this  world 
of  sorrow  into  one  of  joy  and  peace.     His 
death  was  the  most  triumphant  I  ever  wit- 
nessed.    But  Oh!  how  we  all  did  miss  him! 
It  was  a  hard  stroke  on  the  community  at 
large,  but  especially  hard  on  the  church. 
I  felt  as  if  I  could  not  bear  to  hear  the 
whistle  blow  at  the  mills,  and  0,  how  sad 
when  the  church  bell  would  ring,  to  think 
he  was  gone  never  more  to  return.     But 
this  was^God'splan,  and  as  His  children  we 
bowed  to  His  holy  will.     Bro.    Odell  took 
his  place  in  the  Sunday  school,   and  we 
went  on  trusting  in  the  Lord  and  completed 
our  church  and  walked  into  it  for  the  first 
service  on  the  second  Sunday  of  Septem- 

127 


ber,  1893.  We  started  at  the  dogwood 
thicket  in  October,  1887,  and  reached  the 
brick  church  in  September,  1893.  And 
every  one  that  was  present  in  the  dogwood 
thicket  when  the  first  service  was  held, 
was  present  at  the  first  service  in  the  brick 
church  except  one,  Bro.  B.  C.  Elrod,  whose 
death  I  have  already  mentioned.  It  seem- 
ed to  me  that  it  would  have  been  the  hap- 
piest period  in  my  life  if  only  Brother  Joe 
Myrick  and  Brother  Elrod  could  have  lived 
to  have  been  with  us  in  this  service.  But 
thanks  be  to  God  they  are  now  in  the 
church  triumphant  above.  I  often  think  of 
the  pleasant  times  we  had  in  the  little 
chapel  when  Bro.  Myrick  was  superinten- 
dent of  the  Sunday  school  and  his  wife, 
sister  Annie,  was  our  organist;  we  had 
good  music  and  I  did  enjoy  it.  But  I  am 
now  looking  forward  to  the  time  when  we 
shall  all  be  gathered  around  the  great 
white  throne  of  God,  to  join  in  the  song  of 
redemption's  story  with  our  loved  ones  who 
have  gone  on  before,  and  chime  in  with  the 
angelic  hosts  as  they  strike  their  harps  of 
gold  and  cry,  ''Worthy  is  the  Lamb  who 
was  for  sinners  slain.'*  We  held  a  pro- 
tracted meeting  in  our  church  soon  after 
its  completion.    Bro.  T.  L.  Triplett  came 

128 


I  said,  *  'Why  do  you  wish  me  such  a 
calamity  as  that?  Don't  you  know  that 
that  many  fish  would  break  my  traps  all  to 
pieces?  Very  early  next  morning  I  went 
down  to  the  river,  not  expecting  many  fish 
as  it  was  very  cold,  but  to  my  great  sur- 
prise I  found  what  has  never  been  known 
in  the  history  of  the  river  at  this  season  of 
the  year.  There  were  174  fish  in  my  trap, 
some  of  them  weighing  three  pounds;  and 
my  trap  was  not  broken,  either.  I  took 
them  to  Albemarle  and  sold  them. 

I  now  had  my  missionary  money,  and 
money  to  carry  me  to  Conference.  I  said 
to  my  wife,  *  'Now  I  have  the  money  to  go 
to  Conference,  but  what  are  you  going  to 
do  while  I  am  gone?  Our  children  are 
away  from  home,  and  no  chance  to  get  any 
of  them  home  now,  and  I  don't  know  of  a 
soul  that  I  can  get  to  stay  with  you  while 
I  am  gone."  She  said,  ''Don't  trouble 
about  that.  When  the  time  comes  I  will 
have  some  one  to  stay  with  me." 

On  Sunday  before  the  Conference  met 
on  Wednesday  a  good  lady  walked  four 
miles  to  hear  me  preach.  She  came  home 
with  us  from  church,  and  spent  the  night 
with  us.  Before  she  left  Mrs.  Clay  said  to 
her,  * 'Could  I  get  you  to  come  and  stay 

145 


with  me  while  my  husband  is  gone  to  Con- 
ference?" She  said,  ''Yes;  I  will  come  and 
stay  with  you,  and  glad  to  do  it,"  and  she 
came  and  stayed,  and  was  a  great  help  and 
comfort  to  my  wife  in  my  absence.  God 
bless  her  and  hers. 

I  went  to  Conference  and  was  ordained 
Elder,  but  got  no  work.  But  while  I  was 
gone  the  Lord  sent  me  to  a  man  by  the 
name  of  A.  F.  P.,  who  is  very  wealthy. 
He  asked  me  if  I  got  work  in  the  Confer- 
ence. I  told  him  I  did  not,  and  also  told 
him  that  I  wanted  to  have  my  book  printed, 
but  was  not  able.  Now,  I  had  never  seen 
this  man  till  I  went  to  Conference.  I  was 
a  stranger  to  him;  but  with  great  kindness 
he  said  to  me,  '  Tou  get  your  book  ready, 
and  I  will  see  you  out."  God  only  knows 
how  thankful  I  am  to  him  for  his  kindness 
tome.  God  bless  him  and  his!  God's  rich- 
est blessings  upon  his  noble  sons  and 
daughters  in  their  home  and  church  work. 
I  spent  two  nights  with  this  model  family, 
and  shall  never  forget  their  kindness  to 
me.  All  of  this  family  are  Methodists  and 
great  workers  in  the  church.  May  they  all 
live  long  to  be  a  blessing  to  God's  church 
and  the  poor  is  my  sincere  prayer. 

This  is  Christmas  night.    Mrs.  Clay  and 

146 


myself  have  spent  this  day  at  our  cabin  in 
this  lonely  land  all  alone.  Our  dear  chil- 
dren are  all  away  from  home.  We  have 
had  some  disappointments  to-day,  but  thank 
God  we  feel  that  ''He  who  sticketh  closer 
than  a  brother"— or  even  a  mother— was 
still  with  us. 

One  incident  connected  with  my  trip  to 
Conference  I  forgot  to  mention  when  I 
was  on  that  subject,  and  will  mention  it 
here.  1  had  to  go  twenty  miles  to  get  to 
the  railroad  at  Candor,  so  I  decided  to  ride 
my  horse  down  to  Candor,  and  get  some 
one  there  to  keep  him  for  me,  until  I  got 
back.  I  went  as  far  as  Troy  the  first  even- 
ing; there  I  met  with  a  kind  lady  who  kept 
me  all  night  free  of  charge.  When  I  got 
to  Candor  I  found  kind  friends  [who  said 
they  would  keep  my  horse.  When  I  came 
back  they  gave  me  a  good  dinner.  I  then 
called  for  my  bill  for  the  care  of  my  horse. 
The  lady  of  the  house— Miss  B.  C— said 
''We  will  take  that  out  in  prayer,"  and  I 
shall  strive  to  give  them  good  measure. 

CHAPTER   XXVI. 

As  the  reader  will  remember,  the  pre- 
ceding chapter  of  this  little  volume  closed 

147 


about  the  end  of  the  year  1894.  Now  the 
writer  wishes  to  add  to  this  some  incidents 
that  occurred  in  the  time  that  intervened 
between  1894  and  June  18,  1908.  I  am 
now  seated  under  two  Magnolia  trees  in 
the  beautiful  cemetary,  in  the  city  of 
Charlotte,  N.  C,  to  write  this  chapter. 

We  moved  from  Montgomery  county  in 
February,  1895,  and  went  back  to  Salisbury. 
That  year  I  was  employed  by  some  of  the 
churches  and  by  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  of  that 
town,  to  preach  once  every  two  weeks  at 
the  Rowan  County  home.  They  offered 
me  five  dollars  per  month,  and  I  accepted. 
I  told  them  I  could  not  preach  to  these 
people  without  a  church,  and  I  talked  the 
matter  over  with  the  chairman  of  the 
County  Commissioners.  He  said  he  never 
had  heard  of  such  a  thing  as  a  church  that 
belonged  to  a  county.  I  told  him  that  the 
purpose  for  which  Christ  came  to  the 
world  was  that  the  poor  might  have  the 
gospel  preached  to  them,  and  that  it  was 
wrong  to  take  the  poor  people  away  from 
their  homes  and  churches  and  not  give 
them  a  church  in  which  to  hear  the  gos- 
pel. He  saw  the  point,  and  the  county 
gave  me  one  hundred  dollars  on  the 
church  building  fund.  All  of  the  white 
148 


people  in  Salisbury  gave  me  money  for 
this  purpose;  and  I  preached  at  all  of  the 
churches  for  the  colored  people,  and  they 
helped  me  also  (as  there  are  colored  people 
at   the    County    Home  as  well  as  white 
people),  and  I  appealed  to  the  bar-room 
men  of  SaHsbury  for  help,  for  as  they  had 
helped  to  make  people    poor,    I  thought 
they  should  help  to  care  for  them,  and 
they    all    contributed.     Other    men    and 
women  gave  or  sent  me  money,    so  we 
built,  painted  and  furnished  a  nice  httle 
church  that  year,  and  when  all  was  paid 
for,  we  had  some  money  left.     Now  this 
little  book  may  be  read  in  a  county  where 
there  is  no  County  Home  church;  if  so,  I 
hope  the  reader  will  do  his  duty  and  see 
that  one  is  built.     But  you  may  forget. 
Did  you  ever  forget?    I  have  forgotten. 
Upon  one  occasion    I  was  to    meet  two 
young   ladies    at   the    station    who  were 
coming  to  visit  my  daughters.     The  train 
arrived  at  11:55  A.  M.,  and  at  1  P.  M.  I 
thought  of  it.    The   same  day  I  was  to 
meet  a  committee  on  special  business,  and 
never  thought  of  that  meeting  until  two 
and  one  half  hours  after  the  time  appoint- 
ed.   The  same  day  I  was  to  take  a  bank 
book  to  a  Charlotte  bank  to  have  some 

149 


money  matters  adjusted.  I  reached  the 
bank  forty-five  minutes  after  the  bank 
had  closed,  but  they  unlocked  the  door, 
and  let  me  in.  That  was  a  lost  job,  though, 
for  when  handing  my  book  to  the  cashier 
I  found  that  I  had  brought  him  a  book  on 
the  Lexington  bank  that  was  three  years 
out  of  date.  So  I  just  gave  up  and  went 
home  and  waited  until  after  Sunday  to 
attend  to  that  business.  But  the  minds  of 
old  folks  do  get  off  sometimes,  when 
burdened  and  care  worn.  And  sometimes 
the  minds  of  young  folks  get  off  a  little. 
I  remember  when  I  was  much  younger 
than  I  am  now  that  my  surroundings  were 
such  as  to  get  me  off  my  proper  bearings. 
I  went  one  evening  to  take  supper  with 
my  very  best  lady  friend,  and  while  at  the 
table  with  her  and  three  other  young 
ladies,  I  became  so  bashful  that  things  on 
the  table  lost  their  proper  taste.  I  wore 
out  a  biscuit  or  two  trying  to  get  the 
molasses  off  of  my  plate,  and  when  I  came 
to  myself  I  found  that  I  had  put  in  much 
of  my  time  trying  to  rub  a  red  flower  off, 
and  that  I  had  no  molasses  at  all.  I  just 
could'nt  taste  molasses  in  that  crowd. 
Now  these  things  come  along  in  the  lives 
of  the  young,  the  middle  aged,  and  the 

150 


old.  We  all  have  our  days  of  fun  and 
pleasure.  I  don't  want  to  get  so  old  as  to 
forget  the  children  and  young  folks  in 
their  days  of  innocent  pleasure  and  not  be 
able  to  chime  in  with  them.  But  let  us 
all,  old  and  young,  never  forget  to  keep 
our  hearts  right  in  the  sight  of  God.  Let 
us  do  all  the  good  we  can  while  the  days 
are  going  by. 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

There  was  a  petition  sent  up  to  con- 
ference for  my  services  again  at  Chestnut 
Hill  M.  E.  Church,  South  for  the  year 
1896.  The  reader  will  remember  some- 
thing of  the  past  history  of  the  writer  and 
that  church.  I  had  almost  made  up 
my  mind  that  I  never  would  serve  that 
or  any  other  Methodist  church  again, 
but  I  knew  that  it  was  wrong  to  mani- 
fest such  a  spirit.  I  loved  that  place, 
and  I  want  to  say  this  just  now:  The  first 
meeting  that  I  held  at  that  church,  in 
1890,  our  dear  young  brother  Rev.  J.  A.  J. 
Farrington,  was  converted.  He  is  now 
finishing  his  fourth  year  as  pastor  of  that 
church.  The  Lord  bless  John  and  make 
him  a  blessing;  he  is  one  of  our  best  young 
preachers. 

151 


I  decided  to  go  back  to  that  church, 
though  men  of  other  denominations  had 
made  me  good  offers  if  I  would  leave  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South,  but  that  church 
had  done  too  much  for  me  and  mine  for 
me  ever  to  leave  it.  I  was  appointed  to 
Chestnut  Hill  church  again,  and  I  still 
held  on  to  my  little  country  church  as  it 
was  only  two  and  one  half  miles  away.  I 
found  the  Chestnut  Hill  church  in  bad 
condition  financially;  it  was  in  debt  about 
four  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars,  and 
the  little  chapel  that  I  had  built  there  had 
been  sold.  The  Board  of  Church  Exten- 
sion had  promised  us  three  hundred  dollars, 
but  we  could  not  get  that  until  we  had 
secured  a  sufficient  amount  that  added  to 
that  amount  would  pay  of  all  indebted- 
ness and  have  the  church  insured  for  one 
thousand  dollars,  and  pay  the  premiums 
for  five  years.  The  creditors  were  about 
to  sell  the  church,  so  we  went  to  work, 
one  and  all.  I  knew  that  I  could  not  get 
much  salary  that  year,  and  I  did  not  look 
for  or  expect  it.  All  the  debt  on  the 
church  was  paid,  it  was  insured  for  one 
thousand  dollars,  and  the  premiums  paid 
by  the  last  of  March  that  year.  I  re- 
ceived for  my  services  as  pastor  that  year 

152 


one  hundred  and  ninety  dollars,  and  there 
was  no  appropriation  from  the  conference. 
I  worked  what  I  could  in  the  buggy  and 
wagon  shops  when  not  engaged  with  my 
pastoral  work.     There  was  a  great  deal  of 
sickness  among  the  members  of  my  church 
that  year.       One  day  between  2  and  6 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  I  went   to  see 
fifty-two  sick  people,  and  I  conducted  the 
burial  services  of  thirty  in  twenty-eight 
days.    Three  young  men  and   one  young 
lady  died  in  one  family  about  the  same 
time,  and  I  buried  the  four  bodies  at  one 
time.     Our    own  daughter,    Mamie,    was 
sick  with  typhoid  fever  for  seven  weeks, 
and  we  thought  she  would  die,  but  she 
was  spared  to  us.     My  wife  was  very  sick 
at  the  close  of  the  year,  but  with  it  all  I 
stopped  my  work  in  the  shop  and  built  a 
seven  room  house,   for  which  I   received 
seventy-five  dollars.     I  held  a  meeting  in 
which  there  were  one  hundred  and  sixty 
professions    of    conversion;    the    meeting 
continued  for  four  weeks  and  until  con- 
ference, which  was  held  in  Salisbury  that 
year.      Bishop    Galloway,    who    presided 
over  the  conference  that  year,  dedicated 
Chestnut  Hill   church  at  that  time.     We 
had    received    one   hundred    and    twenty 

153 


members  into  the  church  that  year,  and 
the  church  asked  for  my  return  and  I  was 
appointed  there  for  another  year,  1897. 
That  year  I  gave  the  church  all  my  time; 
I  did  not  work  in  the  shop  or  build  any 
houses.  I  received  much  more  on  salary, 
and  on  my  birthday,  July  25th,  I  was 
presented  with  a  handsome  watch  which 
has  never  failed  me. 

I  had  rented  my  plantation  in  Mont- 
gomery county,  and  had  made  several 
trips  down  there  during  the  two  years 
since  I  returned  to  Chestnut  Hill  church. 
I  held  on  to  my  country  church  the  second 
year  as  I  had  done  the  first,  and  the  next 
year  I  did  not  take  work  in  the  conference. 
I  had  borrowed  six  hundred  dollars  from 
the  Building  and  Loan  Association,  and 
could  not  sell  my  plantation.  I  was  still 
owing  most  of  that  amount,  but  my  son-in- 
law,  Walter  W.  Kluttz,  assumed  the  debt 
and  took  charge  of  the  property. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

After  conference  I  rented  a  store  house 
at  Woodleaf,  ten  miles  from  Salisbury. 
The  people  at  Woodleaf  offered  to  come  to 
Salisbury  and  haul  our  furniture,  etc. ,  there 

154 


free  of  charge;  it  was  kind  of  them  and 
the  thing  to  do  if  they  wanted  us  there  as 
they  seemed  to  want  us,  and  as  I  believe 
they  did.  I  was  in  debt  and  had  no  money, 
but  the  Lord  has  been  so  good  to  me  and 
mine.  I  had  married  many  couples  in  and 
around  Salisbury,  and  was  considered 
somewhat  of  a  "marrying  preacher." 
Some  of  the  people  heard  that  the  ''marry- 
ing preacher"  was  going  to  leave  on 
Thursday  of  the  next  week,  so  on  Wed- 
nesday at  7  P.  M.  a  couple  came  to  be 
married;  I  performed  the  ceremony  and 
received  five  dollars.  At  1  o'clock  the 
same  evening  I  married  another  couple  and 
got  one  dollar  and  a  supper;  and  while  I 
was  out  another  called  me  in  and  I  mar- 
ried them  and  got  another  dollar  and 
another  supper,  so  I  went  home  feeling 
much  better,  but  I  did  not  sleep  much 
that  night.  That  was  the  15th  of  Decem- 
ber and  it  was  cold  weather,  and  thinking 
of  leaving  the  nice  warm  room  I  was  then 
in  and  going  up  into  an  old,  cold  store- 
house was  almost  more  than  I  could  stand. 
Wife  and  I  shed  many  tears  that  night, 
but  we  were  up  and  ready  for  the  trip 
early  the  next  morning.  After  the  wagon 
was  loaded,  a  young  man  came  up  and 

155 


asked  me  if  I  could  marry  him.  I  asked 
him  when,  and  his  answer  was,  now\  So 
I  told  my  family  to  drive  on  and  that  I 
would  be  on  later.  I  went  and  officiated 
at  the  marriage,  and  the  young  man 
asked  me  my  price.  I  told  him  that  I 
made  no  charge,  and  he  asked  me  if  a 
dollar  would  satisfy  me.  I  told  him  that 
it  would,  and  he  turned  to  his  wife  and 
asked  her  if  she  would  lend  him  a  dollar  to 
pay  the  preacher,  so  I  got  my  dollar,  but 
no  supper  that  time. 

We  remained  at  Woodleaf  about  two 
months  and  found  many  good  friends  there, 
among  them  Rev.  R.  S.  Abernethy  and 
family,  Hubbard  Bailey,  and  Dr.  Reitzel 
and  wife.  We  were  waiting  there  for 
something  for  me  to  do.  I  hoped  to  get 
work  in  Salisbury,  but  there  was  at  that- 
time  no  available  house  there  which  we 
could  get,  and  while  we  were  at  Woodleaf 
our  'marrying  fees"  had  been  exhausted, 
and  I  did  not  know  what  I  should  do,  but 
the  Lord  has  always  provided  for  His 
children,  and  I  had  not  forgotten  the  ''fish 
catch"  in  Montgomery  county,  and  I  knew 
that  in  some  way  and  in  His  own  good 
time  He  would  provide.  So  one  morning 
before  it  was  light  I  went  down  stairs  and 

156 


opened  the  front  door,  and  there  scattered 
on  the  ground  was  a  handful  of  silver 
money.  I  gathered  it  up  and  went  and 
told  the  two  men  who  had  stores  m  the 
little  village  what  I  had  found  and  told 
them  if  anyone  called  to  know  if  money 
had  been  found  to  tell  them  that  I  had  it, 
but  no  one  ever  called  for  it,  and  I  am  sure 
the  Lord  intended  that  money  for  me  and 

mine.  ,    ^   t         u 

It   will   be  remembered    that  I    could 
handle  tools  as  well  as  preach,  so  a  very 
dear  friend  of  mine,  W.  W.  Lowery,  a  man 
who  was  employed  in  the  shops  of  the 
Southern  Railway  at  Spencer,    and    who 
was  a  very  active  member  of  my  church 
at   Chestnut  Hill    recommended    me  to 
railroad  company  at  Spencer  and  an  offer 
was   made   me   which   I    accepted.    The 
company  wanted  me  to  help  work  up  the 
Railroad  Y.  M.  C.  A.  at  Spencer,  and  I 
was  engaged  in  this  work  for  twenty-two 
months.    In  that  time  I  did  much  hard 
work,    prayed   many    prayers,    and  shed 
many  tears,  and  wondered  often  why  the 
Lord  led  me  along  that  way,  but  I  believe 
that  I  did  some  good  while  there,  and  I  am 
sure  the  work  did  me  much  good.     Ihe 
company  was  very  kind  to  me,  and  sent 

157 


me  on  a  nice  trip,  with  my  expenses  all 
paid,  to  the  National  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Conven- 
tion, held  in  Fort  Wayne,  Ind. 

When  I  went  to  Spencer  I  had  no  money 
with  which  to  rent  a  house,  but  I  borrowed 
some,  and  the  railroad  men  gave  me  some, 
and  they  brought  to  our  house  many  good 
things  to  eat,  for  which  we  were  very 
thankful,  and  their  kindness  never  has 
been  forgotten.  No  set  of  men  stick 
closer  together  than  railroad  men,  and 
they  are  always  ready  to  help  other  people 
who  need  help.  A  railroad  man  is  always 
faithful  to  his  duty.  He  may  have  gone 
with  some  one  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho, 
or  he  may  have  felt  the  pulse  of  the  man 
who  defends  his  country  under  the  flag  of 
the  red,  white,  and  blue;  or  he  may  have 
been  with  Hiram's  men  taking  the  rounds 
to  see  what  tools  were  necessary  to  carry 
on  the  work  to  complete  the  temple,  but 
all  this  only  makes  the  true  railroad  man  a 
better  man.  Did  you  know  that  thou- 
sands of  lives  depend  upon  the  faithfulness 
of  railroad  men  in  the  discharge  of  their 
duty?  Study  the  various  departments  of 
the  work  of  railroad  men,  and  see.  Study 
the  work  from  the  president  of  the  road 
down  to  the  flagman,  and  you  will  find 

158 


that  the  flagman  is  the  most  important 
man  in  the  service.  I  tried  to  be  faithful 
to  every  interest  intrusted  to  me,  and  I  did 
not  know  that  anyone  was  watching  me. 
At  the  close  of  the  year  1899  I  was  asked 
to  take  charge  of  the  Pilot  Mountain  circuit, 
and  I  decided  to  do  so.  So  on  the  5th 
day  of  December  I  told  my  foreman  I 
wished  to  work  a  notice,  but  he  said  that 
was  not  necessary  in  my  case,  as  he  knew 
why  I  was  going  to  quit.  He  told  me  the 
Master  Mechanic,  Mr.  Hudson,  wanted  to 
see  me  in  his  office,  I  went  to  his  office  and 
he  said  to  me:  ''I  understand  you  are 
going  to  leave  us.''  I  told  him  that  I  was. 
''Well,"  said  he,  "I  am  very  sorry  you  are 
going,  but  I  know  it  will  be  better  for  you. 
While  we  hate  to  give  you  up,  still  we 
don't  think  this  is  the  place  for  you.  And 
I  want  to  tell  you  that  on  account  of  your 
faithfulness  while  with  us,  I  am  going  to 
give  you  a  pass  to  your  future  home. ' '  My 
dear  reader,  I  never  shall  forget  that 
expression  of  Mr.  Hudson,  and  coming 
from  a  man  in  his  position,  it  made  me 
think  this:  Now  if  my  work  in  this  world 
was  done,  what  joy  it  would  give  me  to 
hear  my  Lord  say  to  me:  ''Now  for  your 
faithfulness  I  will  give  you  a  pass  to  your 

159 


future  mansion/'  0  God,  help  us  all  to  be 
faithful. 

I  was  not  in  a  very  good  shape  financially 
to  leave  Salisbury;  I  still  owed  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  in  one  debt,  and 
some  other  debts  besides,  for  which  my 
land  was  standing.  While  I  was  in  the 
railroad  shops  the  man  who  held  the  mort- 
gage sold  the  plantation  unlawfully  and 
knocked  me  out  of  about  three  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars.  I  just  let  him  knock  on, 
and  I  told  him  that  my  wife  and  I  would 
die  in  the  County  Home  before  we  would 
sign  such  papers  as  he  had  drawn  up.  This 
matter  is  still  in  the  courts.  I  am  ready 
to  settle  my  part  in  heaven.  At  the 
proper  time  I  may  have  a  little  more  to 
say  about  this  transaction. 

On  the  morning  of  December  15th,  1899, 
my  wife  and  I  left  Salisbury  for  Pilot 
Mountain,  Surry  county,  to  take  charge  of 
the  Pilot  Mountain  circuit.  We  went  by 
way  of  Greensboro  and  reached  our  desti- 
nation about  ten  o'clock  that  night.  It 
was  certainly  a  cold  night,  and  not  one 
person  did  we  know  in  all  that  country. 
No  one  met  us  at  the  train,  but  through 
the  kindness  of  a  man  at  the  depot  we 
were  directed  to  a  hotel  which  belonged  to 

160 


one  of  my  members,  Bro.  H.  G.  Whitaker, 
and  he  made  us  very  welcome.  The  man 
we  had  met  at  the  depot  said  we  could 
have  his  room,  so  we  were  put  in  that 
room  and  our  things  were  placed  there, 
and  we  were  cared  for,  without  cost  to 
ourselves,  for  several  days.  I  entered 
upon  my  work  at  once;  it  consisted  of  six 
churches,  three  in  Stokes  county  and 
three  in  Surry  county,  and  there  was 
another  one  to  build  in  the  latter  county, 
at  Pilot  Town.  We  had  no  horse  and  no 
buggy,  but  Brother  H.  G.  Whitaker,  Bro- 
ther Press  Rendleman,  and  Dr.  Bob.  Flip- 
pin  were  very  kind  to  help  me  along  that 
or  any  other  line.  I  had  one  church  fifteen 
miles  from  Pilot,  near  the  Virginia  line, 
and  quite  a  number  of  my  members 
lived  in  Virginia.  I  found  the  people  at 
Pilot  very  much  discouraged;  they  had 
started  to  build  a  church,  but  stopped 
after  propping  up  a  part  of  the  frame.  I 
got  the  men  and  the  good  women  together 
and  looked  into  the  matter,  and  I  saw  that 
with  such  men  and  women  we  could  soon 
build  the  church,  so  we  went  to  work  at 
once.  Press  Rendleman  is  a  good  man 
and  a  fine  workman,  and  we  all  went  to 
work  with  united  efforts.  I  had  said  after 
161 


my  experience  at  Salisbury  that  I  never 
would  do  again  as  I  had  done  there,  but 
I  wanted  to  help  these  good  people,  as 
I  saw  they  were  willing  to  help  themselves. 
Mrs.  Dr.  Flippin,  Mrs.  Smith,  Mrs.  Ren- 
dleman,  Mrs.  Davis,  and  other  ladies  made 
a  nice  silk  quilt  and  they  wanted  to  sell  it 
and  use  the  proceeds  on  the  church.  Their 
husbands  offered  them  five  dollars  for  the 
quilt,  but  I  told  them  they  could  get  forty 
dollars  for  it.  The  ladies  announced  that 
on  New  Year's  night  they  would  hold  a 
voting  contest  for  the  quilt,  and  that  all 
who  would  could  vote  for  Rev.  J.  Key,  the 
Primitive  Babtist  preacher  or  for  Clifton 
Clay,  the  Methodist  preacher,  by  paying 
five  cents  every  time  they  voted,  and  that 
the  quilt  would  go  to  the  preacher  receiv- 
ing the  larger  number  of  votes,  and  that 
all  the  money  was  to  go  to  the  new  Metho- 
dist church  building  at  Pilot.  The  Baptist 
preacher  got  the  quilt,  but  the  Methodist 
preacher  got  seventy-four  dollars  and 
seventy-five  cents  for  his  new  church. 
Remarkable,  wasn't  it?  This  money  paid 
for  the  material  to  cover  the  church.  The 
same  ladies,  with  the  help  of  many  others, 
made  another  quilt,  on  that  one  they  madje 
seventy-two  dollars  for  the  church,  and 
162 


the  Methodist  preacher  and  his  wife  got 
that  quilt.  We  built  one  of  the  best  little 
churches  to  be  found  in  all  that  country, 
and  it  was  completed  in  time  for  me  to 
preach  in  it  the  fifth  Sabbath  in  April 
of  that  year.  We  rented  a  little  cottage  in 
which  to  live  that  year,  and  we  got  along 
very  well,  and  the  people  asked  for  my 
return  for  another  year.  I  was  glad  to 
stay,  and  there  were  but  few  who  knew 
that  it  would  have  been  hard  for  me  to 
have  moved  that  first  year.  I  left  Salisbury 
with  only  ten  dollars,  and  during  the  year 
I  had  to  buy  a  horse,  buggy  and  harness, 
and  had  to  pay  forty-three  dollars  house 
rent.  I  had  my  wife  and  two  daughters 
to  support,  and  I  received  from  the  seven 
churches  on  the  circuit  the  first  year  only 
two  hundred  and  sixty-three  dollars  and 
sixty-five  cents.  That  was  the  year  1900. 
The  conference  paid  me  one  hundred  dollars 
that  year,  but  seventy  dollars  of  that  had 
to  go  to  the  bank  in  Salisbury.  I  served 
the  circuit  another  year,  and  we  got  along 
much  better. 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

I  wrote  the  preceding  chapter  yester- 
day while  in  the  cemetery.  This  is  the 
19th  of  June,  and  0  such  a  lovely  morning. 
There  is  not  a  cloud  to  dim  the  beautiful 

163 


sky,  and  I  am  seated  in  the  pavilion  in 
Vance  Park.  This  is  a  beautiful  place, 
with  its  fountains,  fish,  birds,  and  squirrels 
playing  around.  The  shade  trees  are  of 
the  most  beautiful  type,  and  flowers  were 
not  forgotten  in  making  up  the  scene; 
they  are  here  to  cheer  the  eye  of  the  tired 
man,  and  to  add  to  the  beauty  of  the 
smiling  woman  as  she  carries  sunshine 
from  place  to  place.  As  I  sit  here  my 
mind  goes  back  to  Pilot  Mountain.  The 
little  town  was  of  about  seven  or  eight 
hundred  inhabitants,  and  was  named  for 
the  old,  noted  Pilot  Mountain,  the  moun- 
tain deriving  its  name  from  the  Indians 
who  were  piloted  over  the  surrounding 
mountains  for  years  by  the  peak  on  the  top 
of  Pilot  Mountain,  which  peak  is  called  the 
Pinnacle;  it  is  more  than  one  hundred  feet 
high,  there  is  an  acre  of  land  on  the  top  of 
it,  and  the  distance  around  it  is  one  mile. 
This  Pinnacle  is  solid  rock.  The  mountain 
contains  about  two  thousand  acres  of  land, 
and  is  about  four  miles  from  the  town  in 
which  I  lived.  One  must  see  the  grandeur 
of  this  mountain  to  know  it.  Reader, 
when  you  go  to  see  this  mountain,  go  in 
May  or  June;  in  May  the  mountain  is 
covered  with  the  most  beautiful  flowers  I 

164 


have  ever  seen,  and  in  June  is  the  time 
for  Huckleberries,  and  you  can  find  them 
by  the  bushel.  The  Methodist  church  in 
the  town  of  Pilot  was  called  "Pilot"  for 
the  town,  and  I  had  another  church  five 
miles  from  the  town.  East,  that  was  called 
' 'Pinnacle,''  for  the  peak;  this  church  was 
in  a  smaller  village  than  Pilot,  but  we 
had  some  good  people  there,  among  them 
the  Wall,  Edwards,  Ziegler,  Rendleman, 
and  Savage  families.  One  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  last  named  families  was  the 
wife  of  Brother  A.  M.  Long,  who  is  one  of 
the  best  men  I  ever  knew;  he  travelled  and 
preached  for  more  than  twenty  years, 
filling  some  of  the  hardest  places  in  the 
mountain  country. 

I  have  made  mention  of  the  church  at 
Pilot  and  that  at  Pinnacle.  The  Sunday 
School  Superintendent  at  our  new  church 
at  Pilot  was  old  Brother  Green,  who  could 
not  be  surpassed  in  his  Christian  qualities. 
We  received  into  the  church  that  year 
Brother  Snider  and  his  wife;  he  was  a  man 
of  means,  and  was  a  great  help  to  us 
financially  and  spiritually.  And  I  want  to 
say  that  while  the  Methodist  people  were 
very  kind  to  us,  so  also  were  the  Baptists, 
both  Primitive  and  Missionary,  and  their 


165 


kindness,  with  that  of  the  Methodists, 
never  will  be  forgotten.  At  Chestnut 
Grove,  the  church  in  Stokes  county,  were 
the  Edwards,  Wall,  Ham,  Gentry  and 
Shultz  families,  and  this  was  one  of  our 
strongest  churches  financially,  and  these 
were  good  people.  Little  Yadkin,  dear 
old  Brother  Long's  church,  was  a  small 
congregation,  but  it  was  composed  of 
splendid  people;  in  this  church  were  the 
Lambert,  Savage,  Gordon  and  other  good 
families.  No  preacher  could  be  treated 
better  by  any  people  than  I  was  treated  by 
that  congregation.  I  never  will  forget  the 
good  things  that  were  given  me  to  eat  and 
the  good  things  that  were  given  me  for  my 
horse  also.  And  when  I  was  ready  to 
start  home,  my  buggy  was  filled  up  with 
other  good  things  for  my  wife  and 
daughters  to  eat. 

Fairview  church  was  on  the  Arrarat 
river  and  its  membership  was  composed 
principally  of  the  Marion  famihes;  this 
church  was  not  as  strong  as  the  others, 
but  the  people  were  just  as  good  and  kind 
to  the  preacher  and  his  family  as  were 
those  of  any  other  church.  New  Hope 
church  was  also  located  near  the  Arrarat 
river,  and  this  was  known  as  the  Needham 

166 


church  in  honor  of  old  Father  Needham, 
who   died   in  his  99th  year.     He  was  the 
oldest  Methodist  preacher  known   in  the 
United  States.     He  had   a  son,    William, 
who  was   a  preacher,    and    William   had 
three  sons  who  were  preachers.     It  is  easy 
to  see  what  an  influence  for  good  went  out 
from  a  church  of  such  good  people.    Mount 
Hermon  church  stood  on  the  top  of  a  high 
mountain,    fifteen  miles    from   Pilot,    the 
home  of  the  preacher,  and  was  within  one 
and  one  half  miles  of  the  Virginia  line.    In 
this  church  were  the  Johnson,  Brim,  Pike, 
Lewis,  and  many  other  good  families,  all 
of  whom  were  good  to  the  preacher  and 
his  family.     Brother  Thomas  Brim  said  to 
me  during  the  second  year:     ''Brother  C, 
are  you  not  in  debt?''  I  told  him  that  I 
was.     He  then  said:  ''Sell  your  horse,  and 
pay  your  debts,  and   I  will   furnish   you 
another  good  horse  until  your  four  years 
are  out  on  this  work."     I  took  his  offer, 
and  he  stood  by  me.      His  wife  was  a 
Missionary   Baptist,  but  I  had  no   better 
home  anywhere  than  with  them,  and  my 
wife,  daughters  and  myself  had  no  better 
friends    than    they     were.      Talk    about 
something  good  to  eat;  I  will  mention  only 
one  case,  and  that  was  at  the  table  of  the 

167 


Johnson  family  over  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Dan  river,  in  Virginia,  and  23  miles 
from  Pilot.  My  wife  was  to  have  gone 
with  me  one  time  when  I  was  going  over 
there,  but  she  was  not  able,  so  they  said 
that  little  woman  must  have  something  to 
eat,  so  they  gathered  together  to  send  her 
something.  The  family  consisted  of  an 
old  blind  mother,  one  bachelor,  one  wido- 
wer, one  grand-child,  and  five  old  maids, 
the  youngest  43  years  old.  They  put  in 
my  buggy,  for  my  wife,  sweet  potatoes, 
corn  meal,  dried  and  green  apples,  cabbage, 
turnips,  a  box  of  mutton,  three  kinds  of 
fall  grapes,  chincapins,  chestnuts,  cloth 
and  I  can't  remember  what  else.  They 
all  gave  me  a  piece  of  money,  and  left  me 
room  in  the  buggy  to  sit,  but  left  no  room 
for  my  feet.  This  is  a  fair  sample  of  the 
people  on  the  Pilot  Mountain  circuit.  Dr. 
R.  E.  L.  Flippin  and  Brother  Snide,  at 
Pilot,  had  good  plantations,  and  they  never 
let  the  preacher's  horse  suffer  for  rough 
food.  I  also  want  to  mention  the  names 
of  Dr.  Woltze  and  wife  who  we  received 
into  the  church  at  Pilot.  Dr.  Woltz  was 
also  very  good,  kind  and  thoughtful  of 
the  preacher  and  his  family.  Mrs.  Woltze 
is  an  excellent  Christian  lady  and  a  great 

168 


church  worker,  and  today  stands  in  the 
front  in  the  Woman's  Home  Mission  Work. 
We  bought  the  house  at  Pilot  that  was 
rented  for  us  for  a  parsonage.  And 
Trinity  College  owned  a  school  building  at 
Pilot  in  which  the  town,  church,  and 
college  were  interested,  and  I  undertook  to 
settle  the  matter  and  secure  the  building 
for  the  town  to  be  used  as  a  graded  school 
building.  I  succeeded,  but  I  had  over- 
worked myself,  and  a  blood  vessel  burst 
in  my  head.  I  consulted  Dr.  Wakefield,  of 
Charlotte,  and  he  stopped  me  from  preach- 
ing for  awhile,  but  I  served  my  fourth 
year  with  the  Pilot  people.  Before  I  left 
there  the  new  church  was  built  and  paid 
for,  the  parsonage  was  bought  and  paid 
for,  and  an  old  debt  of  seventy-seven 
dollars,  of  seven  years  standing,  on  the 
church  at  Pinnacle,  was  paid.  And 
through  the  faithfulness  of  some  of  the 
good  people  at  Pilot,  and  with  the  help  of 
Dr.  J.  C.  Kilgo  and  Brother  J.  H.  South- 
gate,  of  Durham,  the  school  building  was 
secured  for  the  town  and  a  graded  school 
established. 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

The  reader  will  remember  that  when  I 
left  Salisbury  for  Pilot  Mountain  I  was  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  in  debt.     I  am  so 

169 


glad  to  say  that  while  I  was  with  the  good 
people  of  the  Pilot  Mountain  circuit  I  was 
able  through  the  goodness  of  God  and  the 
kindness  of  the  people,  not  only  to  pay 
that  debt,  but  also  to  lay  up  that  much 
ahead.  While  on  that  work  I  saved  three 
hundred  dollars.  While  there  one  of  our 
daughters  married,  but  she  got  a  husband 
large  enough  to  take  care  of  her.  The 
years  I  spent  on  the  Pilot  Mountain  circuit 
were  the  best  four  years  of  my  life. 

Not  being  able  to  take  work  the  next 
year,  on  account  of  the  condition  of  my 
health,  we  decided  to  go  to  Salisbury  and 
spend  at  least  a  year  with  our  children 
there.  We  have  two  sons  and  two  daugh- 
ters who  have  homes  there.  About  the 
first  of  February,  1904,  I  took  charge  of  a 
work  near  Salisbury.  I  preached  at  Mt. 
Tabor,  Gray's  Chapel,  and  a  new  church 
on  North  Main  street;  the  last  named 
church  had  twenty-seven  doors,  twenty- 
seven  windows,  and  seventeen  rooms.  I 
think  this  church  is  doing  well  now. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  there  was  an 
incident  in  my  experience  worthy  of  note. 
In  a  previous  chapter  I  made  mention  of 
my  land  in  Montgomery  county  and  my 
debt.  As  I  said  then,  it  was  in  the  hands 
170 


of  men  who  could  have  saved  it  for  me, 
but  they  did  not  do  so.  One  of  them,  to 
whom  I  was  owing  about  three  hundred 
dollars,  finding  that  he  had  not  done  his 
duty,  said  to  me  one  day  in  Salisbury:  "If 
you  will  give  me  ten  dollars,  I  will  give 
you  your  papers".  I  gave  him  the  ten 
dollars.  So  with  the  wonderful  success 
that  the  good  Lord  had  given  me,  while 
I  went  to  the  mountains  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  in  debt,  I  came  away  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  ahead,  and  I 
never  received  over  four  hundred  and 
ninety  dollars.  During  these  four  years 
many  souls  were  saved  and  added  to  the 
church,  and  we  saved  three  hundred  dollars 
in  money.  I  cannot  understand  it,  but  I 
know  this  and  it  makes  me  satisfied  that 
God's  hand  was  in  it  all.  God  never  has 
been  more  kind  to  anyone  than  to  me  and 
mine,  and  to  Him  be  all  the  praise  now 
and  forever. 

I  was  sent  to  Lexington,  to  serve  the 
West  Lexington  charge,  for  the  year  1905. 
My  wife  being  an  invalid,  I  could  not  do 
the  work  there  that  should  have  been 
done.  We  found  some  very  warm  friends 
there,  and  I  trust  some  good  was  done. 
Among  our  friends  there  were  the  Jenkins, 

171 


Grouses,  Perry,  Sink,  Bell  and  Shoat  fami- 
lies, and  others.  A  Baptist  brother,  by 
the  name  of  Holt,  engaged  me  to  preach 
for  the  Baptists  twice  a  month.  I  never 
can  forget  a  good  old  colored  woman  there. 
Aunt  Mariah  Parker.  I  don't  see  how  I 
could  have  gotten  along  had  she  not  come 
and  stayed  with  my  afflicted  wife  as  she 
did.  She,  with  the  rest,  will  get  her  re- 
ward in  due  season.  This  Lexington  work 
was  a  tough  proposition.  Connected  with 
the  West  End  church  was  a  territory  of 
four  hundred  square  miles,  ten  miles  from 
Lexington.  I  had  to  go  out  there  every 
first  and  third  Sabbath,  at  3  P.  M.  I 
preached  at  West  End  at  11  A.  M.,  then 
went  ten  miles  and  preached  at  3  P.  M., 
and  then  came  back  to  Lexington  and 
preached  at  night.  I  had  to  hire  one  of 
the  best  horses  in  Lexington  to  make  the 
trips.  The  cost  of  the  hire  for  the  horse 
for  the  year  was  about  seventeen  dollars. 
I  paid  seven  dollars  and  fifty  cents  of  that 
amount  myself,  and  at  the  end  of  the  year 
I  received  one  dollar  and  thirty-six  cents 
for  the  conference  collections  and  five 
dollars  and  twenty-five  cents  for  myself. 
We  had  fourteen  members  there,  one  of 
them  said  to  be  worth  more  than  three 

172 


thousand  dollars.  When  I  left  for  con- 
ference, I  wondered  who  would  be  the 
next  man  appointed  to  that  charge. 

While  at  Lexington  I  held  a  meeting  for 
Rev.  Scales  at  Winston-Salem  at  Salem 
M.  E.  Church.  I  never  found  a  better 
people  than  those  Salem  folks  were.  They 
were  so  kind  to  me,  paid  me  well  in  kind 
words,  beautiful  flowers  and  things  more 
substantial  and  I  think  much  good  was 
done  at  that  meeting.  Rev.  W.  H,  Willis 
is  founder  of  that  well  located  church.  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  being  with  those  dear 
people  again  last  April.  God  bless  them 
all  and  keep  us  until  we  meet  again. 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

At  the  session  of  the  Conference  held  in 
Greensboro  in  1905,  I  was  sent  within  the 
bounds  of  the  Charlotte  district,  and  was 
put  in  charge  of  the  Epworth  and  Severs- 
ville  churches.  I  served  these  two  chur- 
ches as  best  I  could,  1906  and  1907.  No 
people  anywhere  can  be  kinder  to  a 
preacher  and  his  wife  than  were  those  in 
those  churches  to  my  wife  and  myself.  Their 
kindness  has  been  burned  into  our  memory 
and  will  remain  forever.    My  dear  wife  is 

173 


sick  all  the  time,  but  she  is  not  forgotten. 
One  bunch  of  flowers  scarcely  fades  away 
in  her  room  before  another  is  brought  to 
her.  I  met  a  very  dear  old  friend  of  mine 
at  Epworth  church  one  night,  Joe  Meisen- 
heimer.  He  and  I  joined  the  Lutheran 
church  in  1866;  in  1867  we  separated,  he 
going  east  and  I  going  west,  he  finding  a 
Methodist  girl  for  a  wife,  and  I  doing  the 
same.  Joe  is  a  good  engineer,  a  faithful 
member  of  the  Methodist  church,  and 
like  myself,  succeeded  in  getting  a  good 
wife.  After  forty  years  we  met  again. 
Joe  says  I  can  out  "lip"  him,  but  that  he 
can  out  *'look"  me.  0  how  good  the  Lord 
was  to  us  boys.. 

In  February,  1906, 1  was  severely  afflicted 
with  shingles.  My  wife  was  very  ill  at 
the  time,  but  the  good  people  never  neg- 
lected us  through  it  all.  While  we  were 
in  Salisbury  in  1905,  our  last  child,  Edith, 
married  Mr.  Watson;  they  were  married 
in  November  and  moved  to  Charlotte  to 
live;  and  Mr.  Brown,  "who  had  married 
our  daughter,  Mamie,  in  Pilot  Mountain, 
was  connected  with  The  Charlotte  Observer, 
and  they  also  lived  in  Charlotte.  They 
bought  a  home  on  West  Fifth  street,  and 
my  wife  and  I  are  boarding  with  them. 

174 


The  church  at  Seversville  is  composed  of 
the  Severs,  Lawing,  Duckworth,  Webb 
and  Frazier  families.  Mrs.  Cora  Frazier 
was  one  of  the  most  faithful  members 
any  preacher  ever  had.  Epworth  church, 
though  unfortunately  located  between  two 
railroads,  had  some  of  the  salt  of  the  earth 
among  its  members.  In  this  number  were 
members  of  the  Powell,  Fisher,  Harris, 
Perkins,  Traywick,  and  Elam  families. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jim  Kimbrel,  their  boys  and 
their  wives,  Mrs.  Andrews,  Mrs.  Hill,  Mrs. 
Robeson,  Mrs.  Millersham,  Mrs.  Weber, 
and  Mrs.  McLemore  were  also  very  faith- 
ful members.  Some  sad  experiences  came 
to  us  while  on  this  charge;  in  1906  Mrs. 
C.'s  brother  Will  died  and  also  her  dear 
old  father  passed  away  in  his  92nd  year. 
He  has  gone  to  his  last  resting  place,  but 
the  dear,  good  old  father  still  lives  in  the 
homes  of  his  children  and  grandchildren. 

Our  children  are  all  married,  and  my 
wife  and  I  live  with  them,  and  no  father 
and  mother  have  children  who  are  more 
careful  to  parents  than  are  ours  to  us.  We 
are  glad  they  have  homes  of  their  own 
here,  and  we  are  so  glad  to  know  they  are 
all  on  their  way  to  the  home  of  the  good, 
where  we  all  can  have  homes  together. 

175 


I  was  appointed  to  the  Dilworth  and  Big 
Springs  charge  for  the  year  1908.  At 
Dilworth  I  met  W.  W.  Cole  and  wife.  He 
is  Superintendent  of  the  Sunday  School, 
and  she  is  organist.  Mrs.  Cody,  Mrs.  Butt, 
Mrs.  Games,  Mrs.  Redfern,  are  members 
here,  as  is  Miss  Lillie  Chick,  who  is  an 
excellent  worker  and  a  leader  in  the  work 
of  the  Aid  Society.  With  these  and  Bro- 
thers Cole,  Fite,  Still  well,  Forbis  and  sons, 
Nivens,  Furr,  and  old  Brother  Faulkner 
(the  coon  hunter)  and  the  faithful  driver 
of  the  jar  head,  to  take  the  preacher  to 
Big  Spring,  the  work  moves  on.  Brother 
Freeman  and  Brother  Sing  at  Big  Spring 
are  doing  a  great  work,  and  the  new 
church  built  there  is  a  wonder  to  all.  This 
is  said  to  be  one  of  the  oldest  preaching 
places  in  North  Carolina,  if  not  the  oldest. 
At  the  conference  held  in  Salisbury  in  1907, 
an  appropriation  of  one  hundred  dollars 
was  made  to  the  new  church  at  Big 
Spring.  The  law  of  the  church  requires 
the  signature  of  the  Register  of  Deeds  of 
the  county  to  certficate  accompanying  the 
application  before  the  money  can  be  obtain- 
ed from  the  conference.  Upon  examination, 
we  found  we  had  no  deed  to  the  land  upon 
which  the  church  was  built.     So  by  order 

176 


of  Attorney  C.  W.  Tillett,  we  secured  the 
affidavits  of  Dr.  Walker,  S.  H.  Hilton,  Esq. 
and  Brother  Sing,   to  the  effect  that  Big 
Spring  had  been   a  preaching   place  un- 
molested  by  anyone  for  more  than  forty 
years.     We  also  had  a  surveyor  to  run  off 
the   adjoining  lands,    with  satisfaction  to 
all    owners.     So    we    have   in    possession 
for  the  M.  E.  Church  South,  five  and  three 
quarter  acres  of  land,  on  which  Big  Spring 
church  stands.     By  the  side  of  the  church 
stands  a  good     district/  school    building. 
The  members  of  the  Associate  Reformed 
Presbyterian  and  the  Presbyterian  churches 
at  this  place  have  been  so  good  to  the 
Methodists.     May   God's  richest   blessing 
rest  upon  .them  all  is  my  prayer.     I  am 
well  pleased  with  this  work,  and  all  the 
people  are  so  kind  to  me  and  mine.     I  had 
the  pleasure  on  the  first  Sabbath  in  June 
of  going  back  to  the  home  of  old  Father 
Brown,  where  I  first  met  my  wife,  and  of 
preaching  in  an  elegant  new  church  within 
three   quarters   of  a  mile  of  that   home. 
This  Methodist  church  was  built  in  1906, 
and  is  another  building  that  is  a  wonder  in 
the  history  of  Methodism.     Father  Brown 
was  a  local  preacher;  he  preached  for  more 
than  sixty  years  and  lived    to    see  this 

177 


church  built,  but  was  not  able  to  preach  in 
it.  He  will,  however,  live  in  it,  in  the 
lives  of  his  children,  grandchildren,  and 
great  grandchildren.  The  Edwards  family 
in  the  community  and  the  Brown  family, 
of  Mooresville,  did  much  to  help  in  the 
building  of  the  church.  And  the  Miller, 
Shin,  Steel,  Davis  families,  in  the  com- 
munity, and  many  others  of  other  denomi- 
nations, helped  to  its  completion,  giving 
liberally  of  their  means.  The  only  daugh- 
ters of  Father  Brown,  Mrs.  Edwards  and 
Mrs.  Clay,  gave  a  nice  large  Bible  for  the 
pulpit.  May  God^s  richest  blessings  rest 
upon  them  all. 

Now  I  am  going  to  close  this  little  book, 
but  before  I  close  it  I  want  to  say  one 
thing  more,  and  that  is  that  in  the  year 
1881  I  took  my  stand  for  Prohibition,  and 
through  all  the  twenty-seven  years  that 
have  passed  since  then  no  one  can  say 
truthfully  that  Clifton  Clay  slackened  his 
hold  of  this  great  principle,  and  no  one 
rejoiced  more  than  he,  when  on  the  night 
of  the  26th  of  May,  1908,  the  wires  brought 
the  glad  news  to  him  in  the  city  of  Char 
lotte,  of  the  great  victory  won.  I  am  so 
glad  I  lived  to  see  it.  Bless  God  for  such 
a  victory.  And  let  all  the  people  say,  Amen. 

178 


Now,  as  you  have  read  my  little  book 
you  will  be  ready  to  say,  Surely  the  Lord 
has  been  good  to  Clifton  Clay.  My  God  is 
not  a  partial  God;  He  will  be  just  as  good 
to  you  as  He  has  been  to  me,  if  you  will 
trust  Him. 

Before  I  bid  you  farewell  I  want  to  say 
to  you  that  I  am  on  God's  altar,  and  there 
to  stay  till  He  shall  say,  'It  is  enough; 
Come  up  higher. " 

Now,  I  close  by  praying  God  to  bless 
this  little  book  to  the  good  of  all  who  may 
re'ad  it,  and  if  it  does  good,  to  God  be  all 
the  praise,  both  now  and  forever.  Amen 
and  Amen. 

Farewell  until  we  meet  again. 

The  real  name  of  Clifton  Clay  is 

A.  L.  COBURN. 

Charlotte,  N.  C,  July  3rd  1908. 


179 


